No choice
by MysticalMoon456
Summary: Rye, a young male student, one day he wakes up to find that he is no longer in his own home, nor world, nor his body! He discover that he has somehow became a Zangoose. Read as he moves forward, trying to figure out more about his transformation and how to adapt to it.
1. Chapter 1

(AN: I do not own Pokémon, nor any of the creatures associate with it, I only own the characters I made and the story I made for them. Also, this is not my first story, I've made quite a few in the past that were left unfinished due to me giving up on them. I do not wish to do that with this story, as I have been planning it out for quite a while, however, updates do not have a schedule, they usually will be updated whenever I feel motivates to write. With all that, enjoy!)

Everything was red...

Each direction, every object, every tree, bush, plant, it was either stained or drench with red.

I was...running... I think?

Was I being chased? I heard footsteps, but were they coming in my direction? Or were they going away? I was hoping the latter... I think...

I was in pain... that I knew for sure. My whole body felt like it was slowly fading, like the pain was so unbearable that it was giving up.

Then... I heard a loud shifting sound, almost like a gun shot, then it went silent.

All of a sudden I felt a massive sensation of pain in my chest and back, something had landed on me, I couldn't move.

I knew I was on the grass, I could feel it, but I couldn't manage to lift myself up, something was on me, impaling me almost.

I looked down, I saw the grass below me turning even redder, now I knew was it was pure blood.

My blood...

/

"...Stable...no... several wounds... fatal... months...".

I heard a voice... but I couldn't make out the full sentences. I also couldn't see, it was pitch black, but my eyes were just closed. Just gotta open them...

They wouldn't open. I kept trying and trying but my eyes wouldn't open up, now I started to panic, had I gone blind? Had my eyes been swollen shut? Why wouldn't my eyes open?

"...Alive... heal..."

Sounded like doctors? I assmumed so since they were talking about healing. We're they talking about me? It made sense since everything still felt weary. I tried again to open my eyes, but they wouldn't budge.

"...three... more..."

Three what? Weeks? Months? Years? I was so confused, my body started to feel shaky, I couldn't move, or see, or breathe. Was I dying? Is this what that felt like? I heard a faint beeping sound, it was going at a rapid pace.

"...Red... unstable... die...!".

I heard yelling, it sounded like people giving orders. I felt a bunch of things touch me all at once. Something was repeatedly pressing against my chest, another was moving one of my arms up and down. What was happening? Were they trying to keep me alive? That means I really was dying! I tried to do something, anything to keep from fading out. Then, something sharp was jabbed into my shoulder, I felt it so suddenly that it made me want to scream...

Then, I did.

"AAAAUGGGGGGH!".

My eyes shot open, my breathing was going at a rapid speed, I could feel my heart starting racing just as fast. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my own screaming, but it didn't sound like me. It sounded like an animal, one I had never heard, but I knew it was me screaming.

I looked around, I saw doctors, all of them crowded around me, though they all looked more like nurses than doctors, and they all looked nearly identical. They looked larger than they should have, larger than me for sure. I looked at my hands, no... they weren't hands anymore?! They looked fuzzy and red, but not red with blood, they almost looked like paws. My chest wasn't MY chest anymore either. It was covered in fur just like my hands, but it had a large bandaged wrapped around the center. What had happened? I couldn't even tell if I was screaming anymore.

"Give him the anesthesia, now!".

Suddenly another thing was jabbed into my shoulder. My screaming stopped, everything went dead silent. The doctors all were just staring at me, everything was almost in slow motion. Everything slowly came back to the pitch black. No... not again... I didn't... want to go back to the dark...

It...hurts too much...

/

I shot awake again, my head was in a daze, I knew I was alive, but It was honestly getting hard to tell.

I tried to remember anything... I remembered going to bed one night... then the blood... everything after that was a blur...

My name... Rye... At least I remembered that... At least I think that's my name, as far as I could remember it was.

Then I remember the previous events, I quickly looked around. Yep. Still in a hospital... so that wasn't a dream.

Then I remember the most important thing, I looked down at myself. I wasn't me anymore, my legs were wider and stubbier, with three small toes at my feet. I could move them, they were mine. Same with my arms, they were white up to my...paws, which now were red on the outer side of them, with three stubby fingers inside. Then I looked at my chest, it was mostly white, but it had a red streak going down in an almost zig-zag shape, but it was cut off by the large bandaged wrapped around my belly. I used my paws and touched the top of my head. Yep. More fur, just as I suspected. I also could feel two long, furry ears.

I then really felt my new senses at work. My eyesight felt almost enhanced, I felt like I could see so much clearer than I ever could before. My ears and nose weren't left out, I could hear things from different places everywhere, and I could smell a million things at once practically. My whole body felt like it had been enhanced, minus the pain. Then I felt the most strangest thing, it felt like something was attached to the back of me, I looked behind myself and saw a large, two ended fluffy tail, I couldn't exactly control it's movements, but I could feel that it was a part of me.

Then it hit me, the markings, the ears, the paws, the tail. It all connected.

I had all of the features of a Zangoose.

Zangoose was one of my favorite Pokémon, I would catch one whenever I could when playing the games, but I never thought I'd become one. At least a hundred new thoughts slammed into my head, how did this happen? Is this just a really realistic dream? Would I ever wake up? Would I be stuck like this?

Just trying to comprehend all of this made my head spin, I had to take these one at a time.

It was then I noticed I wasn't sitting up all the way, I was leaned against a pillow. I tried sitting up, but this caused an unbearable pain in my chest, forcing me to lay back down. This told me that my wounds were still fresh, meaning it hadn't been that long since I got them, I just wished I could remember how I did.

Before I could get the chance to think further, one of the nurses walked in. Now that I could really focus, I could make her out as Nurse Joy from the games. So that would mean I'm in a Pokémon center? I remember them looking more pink in the games and in the anime.

"Hello Zangoose, glad to see you're awake. How are you feeling?".

I didn't know if replying was wise, so I stayed dead silent and just sort of stared at her. I noted that she had confirmed I was a Zangoose.

"Not a talker huh?". She gave a light sigh and placed a notepad on the table next to my bed. "I guess I can't be too upset, you're probably still shaken up about all that happened to you in the past few days".

So something did happen, but what? I remembered a lot of blood, but that's all I could recall from before I got here.

"My name is Nurse Christina, I'll be the one looking after you for your stay here". She said with a smile.  
Christina? So her name wasn't Joy like in the games? Did all the Nurses actually have names?

Christina reached her hand out to pet me, it looked a little large up close, but when she touched my head and started rubbing it, it didn't feel so bad, it felt good almost. I felt weird being petted, but I was a Zangoose, it was supposed to be normal, right?

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep you well-cared for!".

It didn't excatly feel like she was being honest, I couldn't tell if she was talking because she cared or because it was her job, I always hated when workers did that. I moved my head away from her, telling her I didn't want to be petted.

She seemed a little upset at that. "H-hey don't worry.. I'm sure everything will turn out fine!".

I ignored her, I felt a little bad for it, she was just doing her job, but I couldn't feel any honesty in her tone of voice, she almost just seemed robotic, like she was reading from a script. Ignoring wasn't nice, no matter how much I hated these types of workers, but it felt... So fake.

She quietly sighed and left the room.

I tried to lay myself on my side facing towards the door, it hurt, but I managed it. I was half-tempted to look at the wounds under my bandages, but I passed knowing that it wouldn't be very pretty. I tried to position myself in a more comfortable way, which was easier said then done, I tried to lean myself on my left elbow in a way where I was putting less weight on my mid-section, with some struggle, I found a position where I wasn't in complete pain.

I looked around the room, there were two more beds next to mine, both of which were empty, though I could smell two new scents I hadn't smelled before from them, I could tell it wasn't Christina's, it could've been another nurse or another Pokémon, I wasn't sure how to distinguish those smells yet. I heard constant footsteps in the hallways, as well as the sounds of doors opened and closing, and wells clanking against the tile floors. The world felt like a new experience, just these common sounds felt like new wonders to me.

I yawned, I felt exhausted despite having slept for so long. That made me think, how long was I asleep for? And how long have I been like this? Had I been a Zangoose for awhile and I just hadn't been awake to notice it? It I know it couldn't have only been a day, because a night had already passed. If I was a Zangoose, that meant other Pokemon were here, would I be able to talk to them? Did Nurse Christina know I was human? Was being turned from human to Pokemon normal in this world? Was the opposite possible?

I had way to many questions that all just made me even more exhausted. I decided that I'd tried to sleep and think about it tommorow. I slowly closed my eyes, as I drifted off to slumber, I wondered... What is my future here?... and...

Is it even my choice?...


	2. Chapter 2

The following day I woke up, the lights were off so it was dark in the room. Though I could still see fairly well with my eyesight. It was more quiet than before, didn't seem very busy. I felt stiff, so I stretched my arms a bit, then, with some difficulty, sat up. I still felt tired, but I was at least glad to have gotten some sleep on my own accord.

I heard a dinging sound from... was it downstairs? I couldn't tell for sure, but it sounded like it was on a lower level than I was. It also the sounded like the same tune in the games when you healed your team, did that mean this was like the games? I've been seeing more connections to the game than to the anime so far, but I still wasn't sure which of the universes I was in, I could be in a separately universe entirely for all I know.

Suddenly the lights flickered on, I squinted a bit from the brightness, but my eyes adjusted fairly easily. A nurse walked in, she looked like Christina, but she didn't have the same scent. So I knew it wasn't her. She was holding a tray with what looked like dog bowls, one filled with water, and the other filled out this weird kibble looking food. It seemed like Pokémon food from the anime, and it sure didn't look appetizing.

"I saw you were awake early, so I figured I'd bring you early breakfast. It must have been days since you've eaten". She said as she set the tray down on the bed next to me. She had a point, I was starving, but the fact they the food and water were in pet bowls didn't make me feel very good, and like I said, the Pokémon food didn't appeal either.

She looked at me and waited for me to eat, which already made me feel uncomfortable. I was already hesitant to eat the kibble, let alone with her standing over me and staring. Did I mention how much bigger people looked to me? No? Well I felt like a toddler in comparison, if I remembered correctly, Zangoose are only about 4 feet tall.

I slowly reached for a pebble and examined it. It my first time grabbing with these new paws, which was difficult to understand, but I managed to get the hang of it. The kibble smelled just as bad as it looked, it smelled like.. a dog's breakfast. Accurate enough I suppose. I reluctantly placed the pebble in my mouth. It surprisingly didn't taste horrible, it didn't taste good, but it wasn't really bad either. I figured they wouldn't let me have anything else, so I gave in and started eating the bowl of kibble, washing it down with some of the water afterwards. The Nurse seemed satisfied once I finished, she took the tray and the bowls and left the rooms. I laid there and sighed, it felt good to have finally eaten again, though I hoped I wouldn't have to only eat that stuff forever.

I then thought about something, how did she know I was awake if the doors were closed? That meant there was camera or something in the room and they were monitoring me. That thought unnerved me. Did they think I'd escape? Considering I was injured I wouldn't get very far. That made me realize I hadn't learnt how to walk with this new body. I knew from pokedex entries in the games that they usual walked on 4 legs, but stood on two legs when in combat. I had zero experience walking on 4 legs, but what if they expected that of me? It was clear they didn't know I was human, because if they did Christina wouldn't have called me Zangoose, right? Even after a full sleep all these question made me exhausted, so I decided to keep the question to the side for now.

Without anything to think about, I was extremely bored. I just sat there staring at the ceiling. I decided I should try to practice moving, I at least needed to use my time efficiently, plus I would need to be able to walk so learning sooner was better than later. I turned myself onto my stomach, it still hurt badly, but it was bearable for the most part. I slowly lifted myself up until I was in a sitting position that was sort of like a dog or a cat. I then extended my arms forward and used to them lift myself into a standing position, then did the same with my back legs. I was standing up on 4 legs now. Progress.

I didn't have much space on the bed to move around, it wasn't as big as you'd think. I didn't like the idea of trying to jump down though, so I decided just trying to stay on the bed would be good enough. I slowly started moving forward, at first I thought I should've moved both my front legs, then my back legs. But that didn't work very well, I constantly had to regain my balance. I then tried moving one leg at a time, which worked much better. I just sorta walked in half-circles on the bed for awhile, I wasn't sure exactly how long, but probably about 10 minutes or so. Eventually I got tired and laid back down, at which point a nurse walked in again, this time I knew it was Christina.

"Hello Zangoose, I see you're getting yourself active today!". I still was unnerved that they were constantly watching me, but I figured they had to monitor me, so I just let it slide. She went over to pet me, I decided to let her since I enjoyed the feeling. Acting like a pet felt weird, almost embarrassing, but it was expected of me, and I would probably have to get used to it. As she pet me, I noticed I was making a noise, it sounded like purring. From what I knew Zangoose were called the "Cat Ferret" Pokémon, so purring didn't seem like an obscure thought for one. Also while being petted I felt my tail wagging back and forth, almost on it's own accord. Christina seemed amused by this.

"I see your one for affection, I'll keep that in mind". She then stopped petting me, which saddened me a little. She pulled up a chair and sat in it, she seemed pretty serious now, but also nervous. "So... I guess it's about time I tell you what's going on huh?". I felt my ears perk up, those words got my attention.

"I would've told you earlier but, I figured you at least deserved a bit of rest beforehand...". She took a bit of a breath, I sat patiently waiting for her, she really seemed nervous about saying this. "You... you were one of 2 survivors of a mass genocide in one of the local Pokémon villages in a nearby forest... dozens of Pokémon were killed... you and one other survived.". I took a moment to process this. If I was in a village then that meant I had been a Pokémon longer than I thought. But all I remembered was the running... and the blood. When did this whole genocide happen? And where was the other survivor?

Christina practically read my mine. "The other survivor is in a different room... you'll meet them tomorrow. They've been asleep since the event and they only woke up this morning. I figure you two should know each other since you came from the same village.". That got me worried, I didn't remember any other Pokémon here. What if they knew me but I didn't know them? What if we didn't know each other at all? Every scenario I could think of was bad. Christina got up and gave me another pat on the head. "We'll try to make sure everything goes fine, so just be ready tomorrow!". She then left the room.

I laid down and sighed, I had no idea how I was gonna handle meeting another Pokémon. What If they figured out that I wasn't a Zangoose? Would they tell the nurses? Could they tell nurses? I couldn't think of a single scenario that didn't get me into a situation that was favorable. I didn't want to think about it, but it was the only thing that would stay in my mind. I at least needed a plan of action. I decided that I'd just act like I didn't remember them, which in a sense wouldn't really be acting. I figured that I could just pass that I had amnesia from it or something, I just hoped the Pokémon would buy it. I also thought about the other thing Christina said, I had been in a village. Wouldn't I remember being part of a village? Or at least remember something before the attack? Maybe I really was amnesic?

I looked out the window and noticed it was night time. I sighed, I wasn't tired anymore, I was scared. But I knew I'd need to be rested before tomorrow. I knew I'd meet another Pokémon at some point, but I just wasn't expecting it so soon. What if they ended up not liking me? I wasn't hoping for any conflict, especially when I'm not used to being a Zangoose. I knew this could go a multitude of ways, most of which were bad. Then I thought of something, if this Pokémon knew me, and I just didn't remember them, would they know I was human? Would they know how I became a Zangoose? If somehow they did, this whole thing could be a chance to get more answers.

I laid my head on my pillow, knowing that I could at least learn something important from this gave me a bit more hope. I just had to be able to act like a Zangoose, if I did then maybe things wouldn't go so bad... All I could do was hope. After awhile of laying down, I eventually drifted off to a slumber.


	3. Chapter 3

When I woke up the next day, Christina was already in the room. Next to her was a cart with a small pillow on it. I sat up and gave her a confused look.

"Oh! Good morning Zangoose! Hope you slept well." She said as she wheeled the cart near my bed. "Today there's quite a bit for us to do. First we need to bathe you". Bathe me? I'm sure I was capable of bathing myself, even while injured, but I just went with it. Christina went over to me and put her arms around my chest, a little above my bandages, and lifted me up, which I hated the moment it happened. Not only did it hurt a little since it was so close to my injuries, but the feeling of being picked up made me feel sick, now I knew why a lot of pets hated it.

Luckily it didn't last very long since she then placed me onto the pillow, then started to wheel me out of the room. The hospital didn't look at all like a pokemon center, which were usual full of more pink and white walls, this one just had average blue and gray walls of any hospital. It was sort of boring to look at. Christina continued wheeling me until we got to the washroom.

To keep it short, the bathing process wasn't fun, it felt weird having so many of the doctors have to wash me everywhere, some places more uncomfortable others, definitely wasn't a fun time. They also had to take off my bandages and wrap some sort of weird plastic around my wounds to keep them from getting wet, I refrained from looking at my wounds, I didn't like the idea of throwing up at the sight of them. Especially not all over the doctors.

After the bathing was over, they wrapped me in new bandages and put me back on the pillow, then wheeled me to some sort of small backyard area. It looked well treated and all, but it smelled absolutely horrible. Christina set me near one of the bushes and told me to do my business there. As much as I hated doing it outside, even when I was human, I knew protesting wasn't an option since figured I wouldn't have any other opportunities anyway. I knew that would probably be the worst part to get used to while I was here.

Afterwards, Christina brought me back to my hospital room and set me on the bed. She then pulled up a chair and sat near me. I moved myself forward to prompt her to pet me, she giggled and complied. I realized I was acting like a real pet now, but I didn't feel as embarrassed about it. I knew I wouldn't be able to pass off being human, so I could just pass off being a Zangoose... Right?

Christina then spoke. "So.. The other survivor will be here soon. I bet they'll be happy to see you!" That worried me. All I had planned was to act like I didn't remember the pokemon. Which, to be fair, I didn't. If some sort of genocide attack did happen, and I was part of some village, then wouldn't I remember it?  
Nothing made sense, but then again, I was a Zangoose. Anything making sense at the moment would make even less sense.

I looked at my paws again, examining them. Not much for any reason, but mainly just because they were there. I had lost who I was and became this now, was this good? Bad? Was this all some nightmare? I didn't feel as if I could rightfully say if this was a positive or negative thing... At least until I understood why it was happening and whether or not I'd be stuck as a Zangoose. Though from what I've gathered, it didn't seem like I was gonna be a human again any time soon.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a knock on the door. Christina got up to open it, at the door there was a fairly tall teenage boy, he had light skin as well as dirty blond hair. He was wearing a blue hoodie with a pokeball on the center, some casual red basketball shorts, and some plan blue sneakers, as well as he was wearing a light blue backpack. He had a concerned look on his face.

"Oh! Bryan, it's a pleasure to see you here in person!". Christina said to the boy, who I now knew as Bryan. I was confused, wasn't I supposed to be meeting a Pokemon?

"Thank you ma'am". He shook her hand, then he walked over to me as Christina left the room. "Hey there.. My name's Bryan. I heard what happened to your village and... I want to say I'm sorry for all your loses". He seemed genuine in that apology, which made me feel bad since I remember any of the Pokemon that died. Bryan bent down to pet me, I was a little reluctant at first, but I allowed him to do so. As he pet me I smelled his scent, it was fairly nice, but it did leave something to be desired.

"Oh! I was wondering.. Do you have a name?". I was a little confused by the question, but I figured there was no harm in telling him I had one, so I nodded. "Perfect! I brought these just in case!" He set his backpack down and opened it, pulling out a deck of what seemed like alphabet cards, and setting them down on the bed.

"You can use these to spell out your name for me!". I had to admit, this boy was smart. I looked for the right cards until I found the three that I needed, then arranged them in the proper order to spell out "Rye".

Bryan smiled. "Rye huh? Wonder where ya got that name from" He gave me another pet on the head, then placed the cards back in the bag. "So.. The nurses may have told you already but... there's was another Pokemon who survived the whole accident... I guess it's about time you get to see her again huh?". He pulled out a pokeball, it was almost pure white with only a few red outer strips on the rims. It looked like a premier ball.

He clicked the button on front of it, causing it to open and a flash of white light to jet out of it and onto the ground. The white flash took from and soon faded, revealing a shorter than me blue furred creature. It had long black lobes coming from either side of their head, as well as two blue pointed ears. It had many black markings, mostly on it's chest and on it's nose. As well as a long blue tail. If I remembered correctly, it was a riolu. However, one thing that differed was that this one had multiple layers of bandages wrapped around their eyes.

The riolu looked at me, well sort of, she was facing in my direction at least. She was just, standing there, despite her not having eyes shown, it felt like she was giving me a strange look. I just stared at her, not knowing what to say or do, I didn't want to say something wrong, or preferably anything at all.

Finally after what felt like ages, the riolu spoke. "...Hi...". Her voice sounded saddened, like she had lost so much so quickly. Which, in a way, she really had. I wasn't very sure on what to say, but I knew it'd be rude to say nothing.

"Hello.." I tried not to sound unhappy or worried.

"You're... the new one right? The one who had just joined?". She asked. New one? What did she mean by that? Joined? Joined what?

"I... I don't know...". I wasn't lying, I really didn't know if I was.

"I.. I guess the whole thing was... sudden for us... H-hehe..". She laughed sadly after that one. I had no idea what to say.

"O-oh.. I should probably introduce myself." She walked her way towards me, holding out her paw. "I'm Emma...".

I took it with my own paw and shook it. "I'm Rye." I tried to be polite about it.

"Rye... So you are the new one.." She said in a thoughtful tone. So whoever the pokemon in the village were, I must have met them at some point if they knew my name.

"I-I... I guess I am" I said, now I wasn't even trying to act like I didn't know, I didn't need to act.

Emma went silent for a moment, seemingly not sure on what to say. Though it was hard to tell since I couldn't see if she was making an expression. I decided I'd speak up.

"So... what.. happened? To.. you know.." As soon as I started the question I knew it was rude to ask, but she didn't seem to mind it, since she answer a bit quicker than I expected.

"While I was trying to run, I fell down and one of the falling tree branches hit me in the eye... I had already lost one before the attack" She seemed so calm about her answer, I would've expected it to be more personal.

"I'm.. sorry that this happened to you...".

"Don't be.. I'm exactly blind, at least, not completely. Certain Pokémon like me have the ability to control our aura... I can use my aura to sense my surroundings. It helps with not bumping into things". Emma's tail swayed back and forth slowly, it was rather eerie to see.

"Well.. That's good..". I figured if she was ok with answering more personal questions, she'd be able to answer some other one as well. "So... What exactly happened to me during the attack? I've been trying so hard but... I can't remember...".

"I'm honestly not sure where you were... I don't really know much about you at all... Expect that you were the newest edition to the village. Nobody ever told how they found you... I'm sorry...".

I held back a saddened sigh, I didn't wanna make her feel bad. "Hey it's alright, we're both alive right? We just... gotta try and stay positive about it!".

"Positive...". She repeated the word a few times, then a small smile formed onto her face. "Yeah... positive."

Bryan had been watching us talk, I was worried he'd be confused on why it seemed like we didn't know each other, but he seemed fairly happy with our interaction.

"So Emma, you ready to go home?". Bryan asked her. Emma turned to his direction and gave him a nod, then Bryan looked at me. "I'll be able to take you with me soon Rye, but Christina told me I'd have to wait until you were healed enough to leave. I'll come back though!"

Emma turned back to me. "Bryan here said he was willing to adopt us both since our village was destroyed. I've only been at his place for a short time, but his family is quite kind, I'm sure you'll love it once you come there".

I was pretty on board with that idea, the thought of being a pet didn't sound very thrilling, but it sounded a lot better than being sent back to the wild with no idea how to fend for myself.

"Alright! I can't wait!". I said, half lying and half being honest.

Bryan seemed to get the memo, he pulled out the premier ball from early, clicking the button on the front. A red like emitted from it onto Emma, causing her deform into the red light, which then took her back into the ball. I always knew pokeballs did that in the show, but seeing it in person made it all the more bizare. I wondered, what was it like in a pokeball?

Bryan gave me another pat on the head. "See you soon Rye, can't wait to introduce you to my folk!" With that, Bryan took his leave.

The rest of the day went as normal. Christina came back and gave me dinner, which to my annoyance was the same kibble from last time, then at night she shut the lights off and told me goodnight, leaving me once again in the empty room with only my own thoughts to keep me company.

I thought about Emma and Bryan. Bryan seemed like a nice guy, a person I could get used to being around. Emma on the other hand, something about her unnerved me, and I know that's not one of her abilities. Maybe there was something she wasn't telling me? She seemed trustworthy enough, and I did feel bad about her eyes, the least I could do was trust her for now.

I curled up on the bed, slowly beginning to drift off. I knew that very soon, my new life here, as a human turned Zangoose, would truly unfold. I had no clue what was in store for me next, but I wanted to find answers, to learn how I got here, and how I could get back home.

That is, if getting back home would even be my choice.


	4. Chapter 4

The next couple of days went by fairly slowly, probably because I was so eager to be able to go to Bryan's house. As the days went by, I felt much less sore whenever I moved. It was reassuring to know I was healing. I decided to finally take a look at my wound, one time when Christina was changing my bandages, I reluctantly looked down. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, it just looked like I was stabbed my something, but it didn't look like I had been stabbed from the front, so that had to mean I was stabbed from the back, which would mean it went all the way through me, it's a wonder it didn't hit anything important. I wasn't sure what it had been, but I did remember something falling on top of me, maybe that had something to do with it. One morning, which was about the 3rd or 4th day I had been there, I was eating my dinner when Christina spoke to me.

"So, tomorrow will be your last day here. Your wound has healed to where you should be cleared to leave" I was a little shocked at that, had so much time past already? I knew I was healing, but I didn't expect to be leaving so soon.

Christina gave me a pat on the head. "I'll be sad to see you go, but maybe one day I'll see you again! Let's just hope it's not here" she laughed a bit qt that last part. This time her words felt genuine, nothing like when I first met her. I rubbed my forehead against her palm to show my appreciation, she seemed happy about it. I finished up my food, and with that Christina left the room.

I sat down, pondering what would happen next. Would Bryan use me in battles? I didn't even think about battling, how did I use the cool moves they did in the games and anime? I barely knew how to walk in this body, let alone fight. Then again, I'd probably have to learn to fight at some point, especially when there were Pokemon that might attack me, I had to at least be able to defend myself. How would Bryan even react to me not knowing how to fight? Would he find it suspicions? Would Emma find it suspicious?

I decided I'd worry about it when I got there, I curled up in my bed, slowly drifting to sleep.

…

It was pitch black, I couldn't see anything. I tried to look at my paws, no... Hands?! I was... human again?  
I tried moving, but I couldn't, it was as if I was chained to something, my whole body. After awhile, I could see a white figure in the distance. They seemed like they were just wandering around in the darkness, they were heading in my direction.

I tried to call out. "Hey! Help me out of here, please!". But my voice didn't sounded like a voice, it just sounded like a single worded, repeated over and over.

'_Zangoose! Zan, Zangoose!' _That was all I heard whenever I called out, I kept trying, trying to speaking words, but all I could hear from my mouth was _"Zangoose! Zan, zan!"._

I cursed under my breath, why the hell couldn't I speak properly?! I was human again! So why didn't my words sound it?!

The figure came close, I couldn't make out a person, nor a pokemon. I could just see a faint, white silhouette of the figure. I could see the figure was short, proportion wise it didn't look very human.

"A perfect world... All I need... Is a perfect world...". The figure spoke, it's voice was ridged and shakey, like it was trying to... Call for help?

The figure got closer, and closer, soon it was right up in my face, but I still couldn't full make out was it was, it was still just a silhouette. The silhouette started screeching at me, as if it was trying to call out at me, then everything faded to black.

…

I jolted awake, taking deep breathes as I regained my consciousness. I looked down at my hands, they were paws again, I was still a Zangoose. Must've been a dream. The nurses must have been monitoring me, because Christina came in I woke up.

"Rye, are you alright?" Bryan must've told her I had a name. I gave her a nod to tell her I was fine and it was just a bad dream, she seemed to get the memo.

"Alright, just call out if you need anything ok?" She gently scratched me behind the ear, which made me purr like I had before, then left the room.

I lay down and sighed, what was that dream all about? I could only hope it was just a bad dream and didn't mean anything. That figure was saying something about a "perfect world"? What did they mean? I wanted to just pass it off as a bad dream and nothing else, but it felt so real. And considering I was a Zangoose, it was hard to know what was just a dream now. All I knew was that I was worried, that was for sure.

After awhile, Christina came back in with my breakfast. I had just about gotten sick of this kibble, to the point where just smelling it made my stomach churn. I knew I'd only be here for one more day though, so reluctantly, I ate the kibble barely managing not to gag in the process. Christina seemed satisfied and she took the empty bowl away while I silently prayed I wouldn't be fed the same stuff at Bryan's house.

That got me thinking, what would his place be like? Would there be other Pokémon? Would his parents like me? I hoped that he had talked to his parents beforehand, if I was some sort of surprise to them then that scene wouldn't be pretty at all. I'd have to act like a Zangoose, I wouldn't want any of them getting suspicious of me. Emma already thought that I had amnesia, I had to make sure the others did to. How many of them would there be? How could I convince all of them I was a Zangoose?

"Too many question..." I spoke to myself, once again hearing the roughness of my voice. "Focus one at a time..."

A few hours later, I got bathed again, but this time after it was over they didn't give me new bandages. They said my wounds had healed, but the scar on my stomach from it wouldn't for a long time. I didn't fancy the idea of seeing the scar every time I looked down, but I didn't have much choice, so I went with it. Later, about noon I believe, I was laying on my bed with Christina sitting on the chair nearby.

"Bryan will be here soon, so I guess this'll be farewell". She gave be a scratch behind the ear. I'll admit I had gotten so used to Christina I wasn't exactly happy to be leaving her. I once again rubbed my hand against her palm, she seemed happy that I had warmed up to her so well.

A few minutes later, we heard a knock on the door. Christina opened it, Bryan walked in, alone this time. Christina greeted him with a bow, he nodded and shook her hand, then went over to me.

"So little guy, you ready to go?" Bryan pulled out a ball, unlike Emma's, this one was nearly pure black, but it had a red and yellow strip on the top and was yellow in the middle ring where the button was, a luxury ball. I was a little nervous about going in a pokeball, but if Emma was alright with it, then it couldn't be that bad right? I gave Bryan a nod to confirm I was ready. He nodded with a smile, then gently tapped the center of the ball onto my head. In almost a second, I could feel myself... deforming? A strange red glow surrounded me as I starting feeling like I... wasn't whole. Soon the pokeball was getting close, and could feel myself getting transferred inside, making the reality around me fade to darkness.

…

I... woke up? I wasn't sure if I had ever been asleep. I wasn't even sure how to describe the feeling I had, I knew didn't feel normal, whatever normal was. It was like a mix between being conscious and unconscious at the same time... I didn't get it. I'd tell you what it looked like, but it didn't look like anything, it wasn't dark, but there wasn't anything visible to me, not even my own body. I felt myself moving, or at least floating, which was a little reassuring, but other than that I couldn't really feel much.

Then, I suddenly felt... relaxed. Like, a bunch of pressure had been lifted away. I don't know how to explain, but, it was like some sort of relaxing aura had surrounded me. It started making me feel happy, not just in general, but towards Bryan. He wasn't there, but I just felt some unexplainable happiness towards him, at least I think I did, I could feel myself smiling. Then it hit me, I was in luxury ball, which in the games increased a Pokémon's happiness towards you when you caught them. I'll admit it made me feel like I was being forced to be happy towards him, but at the same time, it felt good. I hadn't felt happy since becoming a Pokémon, sure I've had positive feelings, but until now I hadn't truly been happy.

I just floated there in my state of happiness for what felt like hours. Suddenly, I saw a sudden flash of light. I could feel my body reforming in a way, as if I was slowly being pieced back together. I opened my eyes to see I wasn't in the hospital, but I was outside. I squinted at the sudden brightness of the sun. Looking up I saw Bryan smiling at me.

"Hey Rye! We're here!" Bryan then pointed ahead. I looked to see a fairly large, two-story house, it was mostly burgundy with a navy blue roof, as well as a decently sized garage on the side. It had a balcony on the top floor and a well decorated porch with potted plants and windchimes. It was much bigger than my apartment back when I was human. Bryan chuckled at my amazement.

"I'm glad you like it so much! Come on, let's go inside!" Bryan made his way towards the porch, I got on all fours again and followed him. The porch stairs actually gave me a bit of struggle, it stung my chest a little each time I climbed up a step since I had to do it two legs at a time, but I managed without too much effort. Bryan opened the door and we walked inside, it almost looked bigger than the outside! Just in the entrance I could see multiple hallways, and the from I could see of it the upstairs had just as many. I had seen large houses before, but for being much smaller than human, this place was absolutely massive.

We walked into the main room, there was a decently large couch in it, seemed fit for a family of 4 or 5. On the ceiling was a large, crystal chandelier handing from it. And in front of the couch was a large, flat screen tv. It was huge compared to the one I used to have, but for some reason it gave me a bit of a shiver down my spine, but I shrugged it off for the time being. On the walls were bunches of drawings, seemed like they'd been drawn by a young child, but even then they looked fairly well done.

All of a sudden I was overwhelmed by a myriad of new smells, I couldn't exactly define them, but some smelled human like and others smelled like they'd belong to Pokémon, Emma and Bryan's smells were amongst them.

Bryan sat on the couch. "My folk aren't here yet, so you just relax and make yourself at home until they get here!" he pat the cushion beside him, prompting me to jump up. I wasn't too keen on jumping since I didn't know if all the movement would be healthy. Bryan seemed to notice, so he gently picked me up and placed me on his lap. I didn't hate it as much as I did with the nurses.

Bryan stroked my head, which I enjoyed and purred in response. I was almost getting used to being treated like this, as embarrassing as it was. I couldn't lie and say getting your head stroked when you're covered in fur doesn't feel incredibly relaxing.

We sat for awhile while Bryan stroked me. He picked up the remote and turn the TV on. On the screen seemed to be some Pokemon version of Naruto, with a pikachu as the main character. It played excatly as the original show, and was fairly entertaining to watch. Bryan soon took me off his lap, which saddened me quite a bit, and stood up.

"Imma go make us some lunch! Feel free to explore the house if you'd like!" Bryan the made his way into what I assumed to be the kitchen.

I decided to take up his offer to explore, I carefully jumped down the couch and made my way towards the hallways. The house was so big I didn't know where to start! I looked down the large hallway and decided to just try as many doors as I could. I went down the hallway and tried to open the first door, I couldn't just push it open, so I tried to reach for the doorknob. I couldn't jump up to it since it still hurt to jump, so I just figured I'd only go in rooms with open doors.

I walked further down the hall and got to the first open door. Peeking inside, I saw a large table with a TV that was a bit smaller than the one in the living room. There was a line up of chairs in the back as well as some sort of gaming console on the table. It seemed like a game room to me. I was glad to know that I'd potentially be able to play video game again, if I was even able to with paws.

Next room was a fairly large one stacked with instruments. Pianos, trumpets, guitars, you name it! I wasn't much of a musician when I was human, but I did know how to play piano. I wondered if I'd get an opportunity to again. It would be fun to try and play it without having thumbs .The next few rooms weren't much special, some had building tools, some had stacks of board games. There was laundry room, some bedrooms that looked like guest bedrooms, one of the rooms had a broken vending machine. Similar to the TV, the vending machine gave me a small chill up my spine, but I once again shrugged it off.

I soon got to the very back of the house, there a door that led outside to what I figured to be the backyard. It was closed, but it had a small flap on it that acted as a pet door for me to slip outside. The backyard was absolutely beautiful, there was a garden with an myriad of flowers! There were all rainbow colored too, and in perfect lined up patterns. There were two small fountains on either side of it, and behind the flowers were a couple of berry bushes. It was absolutely amazing to look at it all.

I decided to take a bit of a tour of the garden. I walked towards the flower patch, when suddenly I heard a loud noise.

_SNAP!_

It sounded like a twig snapping, I looked behind myself to find the source of the noise. But I didn't see anything nearby. I tried to shrug it off and kept walking towards the flowers, but then I heard it again.

_SNAP! SNAP!_

I looked around again, still trying to find where it came from. After searching to no avail, I heard a semi-deep voice from behind me.

"Well...? Don't be rude... Turn around, and tell me who you are..." The voice spoke very slowly, almost threatening.

I took a deep breath, then slowly turned myself around to see a indigo, cat-like creature looking back at me. They had a tuff of fur around their neck, as well as on their hair, They also had white strips on their ears, which were folded in on their head, on their paws and feet, and on their two long and soft looking tails. It was a Meowstic, a male one at that. Though one thing that made him stand out was that he was taller than me, weren't Meowstic only 2 feet tall?

"I-I'm Rye..." I stammered, a bit intimidated by his presence.

The Meowstic went silent for a moment, then a smile appeared on his face.

"So you're the kid Bryan was yapping about eh?" He said. "Well then, name's Gaze. Nice to meetcha' kid" Gaze held out his paw to me, I hesitated, but took it and shook it politely.

"N-nice to meet you too.." I was still a bit nervous, but I could tell from this guy's expression that he had good intentions, so I managed to ease up a bit.

"It's been awhile since Bryan's had some new catches. Let alone two in the matter of a few weeks" Gaze said, his eyes darting left, I assumed he was talking about Emma when he said 'two". "So, where ya from kid?"

I was nervous to answer that, since I technically didn't know. So I just went with it.

"I... don't exactly remember..."

"Aw come on, Zangoose can't learn amnesia, you gotta have some sort of recollection right?" It's as if he saw right through me, I couldn't tell.

"All I remember was the attack on my village, then I woke up in the hospital... I don't even remember where my village was at..." It sounded weird calling it "my" village, but I went with it.

"Hmm... guess we just gotta hope you can remember something soon huh?"

I nodded, he definitely didn't seem like he wanted to hurt me. So that was reassuring.

"So.. are you one of Bryan's Pokémon?" I asked, curious.

"Righto, kiddo. I'm his first one at that!" Gaze replied, he winked at me at the last part. "So, how do you like it round' here so far? Pretty nice place huh?"

I nodded in response. "Yeah! It's a very beautiful house! Especially here in the garden!"

"Heh, glad to know you're taking a liking to it." Gaze darted his eyes left again.

Just then, we heard Bryan call out. "Lunch is ready!"

"Guess that's our cue, come on kid." Gaze said as we walked back inside the house.

Once we got in the kitchen, I saw there were four bowls lined up on the floor, smallest to largest. The smallest one had Emma's name, the second largest one had Gaze's, the one in the middle of them had my name. Emma was by her bowl already, eagerly munching on whatever was inside. I took a peek inside it and was met with a fantastic surprise, inside wasn't that kibble I had been eating before, but instead was freshly cooked meat! Just the aroma of it made my mouth water.

I sat down and happily dug in, it tasted just as great as it smelled! I hadn't had fresh meat in weeks leading up to it, making the experience of eating it all the more better. Soon I had finished up my fantastic meal and laid back on the floor in content. Emma turned in my direction, and Gaze looked at me with a smirk.

"Heh, if you think that was good, just wait until ya see his mom's cooking." Gaze chuckled.

I didn't quite catch it clearly, but I could've sworn I heard a slight giggle from Emma.

After lunch, I felt rather tired. It made sense really, I hadn't had such a hearty meal in quite a while as far as I remembered, guess my body wasn't expecting one so suddenly. Bryan seemed to notice my drowsiness. He picked me up, which does not feel good when you on a full stomach, then he sat on the couch and placed me in his lap. I curled up and laid there as he stroked my head. Gaze sat next to us.

"You're gonna like it here kid, trust me." Gaze smiled at me when he said that.

"Thanks Gaze.. I'm glad to know I'm I good hands.." I said with a yawn. I was just closing my eyes when I remembered something, so I asked. "Hey Gaze? Who does that large bowl belong to? I never read the name on it..."

"Oh, it belongs to my little brother." He replied.

Gaze had a brother? Where was he at? And why was his bowl so large in comparison to everyone else's? I wondered all these questions as I drifted often into a slumber, rather nervous yet excited for the events to come.

…

(AN: I don't usually do these but I want to thank you all so much for the support and patience! I know it takes awhile between uploads, which hopefully will stop once summer starts up for me! Until then I hope you enjoyed! I'll try to make chapters around this length moving forward!)


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up what felt like at least a few hours later. I was still laying in Bryan's lap, and he was still gently stroking my fur. I noticed Gaze wasn't there anymore. I yawned, telling Bryan I was awake.

"Hey Rye! Did ya nap well?" He asked. I nodded in response, rubbing my eyes. He smiled. "Glad you did, you were out like a light!" He chuckled, guess I was out longer than I thought.

Rye stood up, lifting me up with him. I had been fine with it earlier, but I remembered my dislike for being picked up. I shifted a bit in Bryan's arms to tell him that. He seemed to get the memo and set me down.

"Sorry buddy, didn't know you don't like getting picked up." I gave a yip to tell him it was alright, he seemed content and walked over window. I followed, suddenly hearing the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. I tried lifting myself up on the window seal to see what was happening. I managed to climb up and saw a large black truck parking into the driveway.

"Hey, that must be Mari and my folks!"

After a moment the doors opened and three figures came out. One was a fairly tall and broad looking man, he had a full brown beard covering his face and very little hair on his head. He wore a light brown suit with dark blue jeans, and a pair of dress shoes. Next to him was a short, pale woman. She had blond hair and was rather skinny, she wore a casual red T-shirt as well as light blue jeans. I assumed those two were Bryan's parents. The figure who caught my eyes the most was the third one, it was a large, yellow figure. It's belly was a whitish color, and it had two black stripped ears as well as strips on it's neck and long tail. At the end of it's tail as well as on it's head were two bright red gems.

_'An Ampharos'_ I thought to myself.

All three of them walked into the house. Bryan greeted his mother and the Ampharos with a hug, but only gave his father a simple "Hello sir" and a nod. The father barely nodded at him. The mother then saw me and practically squealed.

"Oh my gosh is this Rye? He's absolutely adorable!" She spoke happily. I blushed so much that I was lucky my fur covered it up. She seemed so happy to see me that I couldn't help but smile, I didn't bother trying to make her put me down. "My name's Jenna! It's so nice to finally meet you Rye!" I gave her a happy yip, she smiled and set me back down.

I looked up at the father, he glared down at me, he was rather intimidating. He just scoffed and rolled his eyes. Turning to Bryan, he spoke in a harsh tone.

"If he sheds on any of my shit, I'm taking him to the shelter. Understood?" He said.

"Y-yes sir." Bryan nodded, stuttering a bit.

The father glared at me once more, I felt my ears go down. "I'm Vince, that's all you need to know. Not that you're competent enough to understand anyways." He walked off down the hallway.

'_What a dick..._' I thought to myself.

"Don't worry about Vince... he's usually a bit iffy on newcomers." Jenna said, scratching my ear. She seemed genuine, so I decided I'd take her word for it. Though I'd still have to be careful of him.

"Hello there, young one!" A voice from behind startled me, I turned to see the Ampharos towering over me. He looked quite excited to see me.

"Oh! Um, hey there!" I said with a wave. "Y-you're Gaze's brother right?"

"Why yes I am! My name is..." He then posed proudly. "The Mighty Marigold!"

"Mighty... Marigold?" It took all I had to stifle a laugh.

"I am Bryan's main Pokémon! My goal is train newcomers to be accustom to his battle style!"

"So, you like a tutor?" I asked.

"If you want to put it in a less exciting way, then yes."

"So you, plan to train me?"

"Indeed! It took little time to get Emma up to speed, I expect you to be no different!" He nodded at me. His confidence made me nervous, I knew nothing about how to battle in this world. I could only hope this wouldn't make it more difficult.

"We shall start tomorrow morning! Come prepared!" He then walked down the hall towards the garden. I was a little taken aback by his eagerness, but I knew I'd have to learn to battle at some point. Even if only to defend myself.

Not sure what to do now, I walked over to the couch to see Emma. She was just sort of "starring" at the floor, I suddenly felt unnerved by it for some reason.

"Uhh, Emma?" I said. She turned her head to my direction.

"Oh! H-hey there Rye..." She said.

"You feeling alright?" I asked, a bit concerned.

"I'm as alright as I can be, just thinking about a few things. I guess." She said, turning her head to the ground again. I couldn't help but notice she was act quite different from when I had seen her in the Pokémon center, she seemed so, deadpan and broken before. Now she felt like an actual person. Not that she hadn't before, it had just felt less.

I sat next to her. "So... Marigold trained you right? How was it?" I asked, thinking I could get a bit of incite of what it was like.

"It was... actually pretty helpful. It was a little confusing to get used to his way of teaching, but I got used to it quick." She said.

"I see... well, what do you think of him like, as a person?"

"He seemed really arrogant and cocky at first, which he is. But, after a few days of training I really started to see he wasn't just an arrogant guy." She put the word "see" in quotations.

"What's he like?" I asked, more curious now.

"He's seems like a guy who really looks to help out, and just all around tries to bring out the best in others. He taught me some things I wouldn't of known otherwise, and it's helped my battling." She gave a light chuckle.

I was a bit shocked about this, he didn't seem like that kind of guy at all. I almost didn't believe it.

"You'll get used to it. trust me." She turned to me again, a light smile on her face. "You just have to... give him a chance."

I thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, I will." It was silent for a moment, then I spoke up again. "Hey Emma?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you... think of Vince?"

"I'm... not sure... he seems to have a hatred towards Pokémon. His aura is not quite pleasant either." She said.

"How exactly do you define someone's aura?" I asked. hoping I wasn't asking too much.

"It's... complicated. To keep it simple enough, since I'm blind, I can only see a person's to tell who and where they are. My vision is more of colored silhouettes, each color indicating that person's aura. It let's me feel their will as a person. Though I haven't fully learned what each color means."

"So... what color everyone's aura?"

Emma almost smiled. "Well, Bryan's aura is green. Which seems to me he has good intentions. Marigold's is a mix of green and blue. Though I'm not quite sure what blue means yet... Jenna's is green as well. Vince's... is red. Completely red..."

"Is... is red bad?" I asked, worried.

"It means he has... _unfavorable_ intentions."

"I... I see." I said, wanting to change the subject. "What's my aura?"

"I don't quite understand your aura.. it seems to be, gold...  
It's one I've never seen before at all." Gold? Did that have something to do with me being human? If only she knew what gold meant. Then I could possible get more answers about this transformation.

I then realized one aura she hadn't said.

"What's Gaze's aura?"

"Oh um... his aura is w-"

"Dinner's ready everyone!" Jenna called out.

Bryan walked over to us. "Come on you two! You'll love my mom's cooking, Rye!"

Emma got off the couch, walking towards the kitchen. I didn't hear what she said about Gaze's aura, all I could hope is that she wasn't gonna say something bad. Marigold and Gaze were already at their bowls once I walked over there. Me and Emma went over next to them to our own. Vince and Bryan were sitting at the table discussing something.

"Hello again, young ones!" Marigold waved at us.

"Heya." Gaze said.

"Hey guys!" I said, Emma gave them both a wave.

Jenna came over, putting a delicious looking mixture of rice and meat into each of our bowls. Marigold already started eating, quite quickly considering he had the largest bowl of all of us. I at some of the food, and my god was this the best thing I had ever tasted. The others hadn't been kidding when they said Jenna's cooking was amazing. It was so good, I started eating nearly as fast as Marigold, finishing rather quick.

Marigold saw me, chuckling. "I see I'm not the only one who's a heavy eater!"

"Did you like it, Rye?" Jenna asked, looking down at me from the table. I nodded and gave her a happy yip. She smiled and scratched my head. "I'm so glad!" Bryan smiled at me. Vince just huffed and got up from the table to clean his dish. Something about him really put me off, especially knowing about his aura...

After we all finished up dinner, it was time for everyone to go to bed. Bryan took me to a small room. There were two soft looking pillows, Emma was already laying in one of them. I laid down on one of the pillows, it was quite comfortable.

"Night you two." Bryan smiled. petting my head. He went over, petting Emma as well. We both yipped at him, telling him goodnight. He smiled, leaving the room.

It was silent for a bit, then Emma spoke up.

"Hey Rye?"

"Yeah?" I lifted my head up.

"Good luck tomorrow."

"Heh, thanks Emma." I smiled. I then closed my eyes, soon drifting off to sleep.

…

"It's about time we finally meet again."

What? Who had said that? I tried to look around, but I couldn't move my head, or my entire body. I was in some sort of pitch black limbo. I heard eerie laugh, then slowly a white figure started moving closer to me. It looked the one I had seen back in the hospital. As it came closer, I saw that it looked like... another Zangoose?

"Why hello there Rye." The Zangoose smirked at me, I noticed that he had a scar on his chest, like I did.

"Who... who the hell are you?" I asked.

"So you really don't remember me? What a shame. Then again, I'm not exactly quite the same as I used to be, at least to you." He chuckled, then squinted for a moment. "How about you just call me... Cope, for now at least."

"Cope... well what do you want with me? Where even are we?"

"Oh Rye, can't you tell that you're dreaming? I'm simply projecting myself into your mind."

"So... we're in my head?"

."In a way, yes." Cope smirked once again.

"Well... why do you look like me?"

He laughed now. "This isn't my true appearance Rye, this is just how I seem to you visually."

"Well, what do you even want? What's this game? Why are you in my head?"

"This is no game my friend. I'm simply here to, help. In a way at least."

"Help? How?" I didn't trust him for a second, but I couldn't help but be curious.

"You see... I know things. Things you desire to know. I have knowledge that you'd die for, Rye."

"Wait... do you... know how this happened?" I was even more intrigued now.

Cope laughed again. "Yes Rye, I know that. And more."

"Well... why should I trust you?" I asked, still on edge.

"You don't have to trust me Rye, all I ask is that you hone your new abilities well." His smirk faded, he seemed serious now. "You'll need it for what's coming."

"W-what? What's coming?!" I asked. Cope tried to speak, but it almost seemed like his voice glitched out.

"Oh dear... it... like..." His words kept getting cut off.

"What? What are you saying?!

"You're waking up... I can't stay... you're awake... Damn it..." Cope looked me in the eye. "We will... again soon... Good... luck Rye!"

Before I could say anything else, my eyes shot opened. Emma was standing over me.

"Rye?... Are you alright?..." I could tell from her voice she was concerned. "You were screaming... and grabbing your head. I could sense your distress." She said.

"I... I'm f-fine..." I said, sitting up. "Just... a bit shaken up." I could still feel my heart racing.

"I see... Are you feeling alright now?..."

I nodded. "Y-yeah.. S-sorry if I woke you up."

"No worries, I was awake long before now."

"Alright... is everyone else awake?"

Before Emma could answer, the door opened. Bryan walked in.

"Morning guys! Did you both sleep well?" He asked. Both me and Emma nodded, even though I was sort of lying. Emma never called me out on it though.

We all walked to the kitchen where Jenna was cooking breakfast. Marigold was at his bowl already, though Gaze wasn't.

"Hey uh, where's Gaze?" I asked.

"He's in the garden, he doesn't eat breakfast." Marigold said as Jenna put a variety of fruits into each of our bowls.

"Oh."

Vince then walked in, sitting down at the table. He glared at the three of us as he passed.

"Yeesh, what's his problem anyways?" I asked.

"Shhhh!" Marigold shushed me, then whispered. "H-he can tell when you're talking about him.." I glanced over to see Vince glancing right back, like he knew I said something about him. I couldn't help but shiver.

After we had all finished eating, Bryan spoke up. "Hey mom, is it alright if I do some training in the garden for awhile?" He asked.

"Sure honey, just don't break anything or mess up the flowers" Jenna responded.

"Alright! Come on you guys!" Bryan said as he started down the hallway. Me, Emma, and Marigold followed.

Once we came out, Gaze was sitting by the flowers. He turned around once he heard us.

"Oh, there you all are." Gaze stood up and went over to us. "You guys out here for trainin'?"

"Indeed we are!" Marigold excited stated.

"Hehe, excited as always to train eh?" Gaze smirked.

"But of course! I must be sure we are all in perfect condition!" Marigold spoke with confidence.

Before they could continue talking, Bryan spoke up. "Alright guys! First thing's first.." He bent to me. "You think you can show me what you can do, little guy?" He asked, petting my head. As nervous as I was, I sorta wanted to see for myself what I could do. So I gave him a nod in response.

"Alright!" He then looked at Marigold. "Hey, Mari! You mind sparing with Rye?"

'Not at all!' Marigold said, Bryan seemed to get the memo.

Everyone backed out of the way, leaving the field for me and Marigold.

"Alrighty Rye! Show me what you got!" Marigold said.

And at that point, I realized I had no idea how to fight with this body. I knew I'd was supposed to have a move to use, but I had no clue how to use it. I didn't know anyway to really play this off, but then I remembered they all thought I was amnesiac, or at least Emma did.

"Umm... I don't exactly remember how to use a move." I said.

Marigold looked at me in confusion, Gaze did as well.

"How... how do not know how to use a move?" Marigold asked.

Emma spoke up. "He doesn't remember anything before our village was destroyed... at least, that's what he told me."

"I see... well then. I supposed I should teach you that first." Marigold said. "So your a Zangoose, you most likely know scratch. Though first you'll have to get your claws out."

Scratch? That seemed pretty underwhelming. But it was a start. I looked at my paws, I could feel something in the them, something I could bring out, those must be my claws. Suddenly, they four red, pointed claws, two on each paw, were unsheathed from my paws.

'_Well that was surprisingly easy._' I thought.

"Alrighty! Now, being a normal type, your primary energy is normal energy. That energy is in the core of your body. You need to control that energy, then transfer it towards the body part that does the move, in this case being your claw." Marigold explained.

_'So that's how moves worked huh' _I thought.

I took a deep breath, then tried to focus towards my core, which I assumed was my chest, like he said. I felt a couple things, four to be exact. three of them felt... natural, but one felt... unnatural. Not in a bad way exactly, it just didn't feel the same as the others, maybe that was a move of a different type? I decided I could test it later, so I decided to control one of the natural feelings. Then, like Marigold said, I tried to transfer it towards my claws. Suddenly, my claw had a very faint glow of white.

"L-like this?" I asked.

Marigold was beaming. "Exactly like that! Now, swing at me with it!" I did as he said, swinging at him as hard as I could. He actually staggered back a bit, but it didn't to do too much damage. He was still beaming. "Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic!"

I glanced over at Emma, who gave me a smile in return.

"Alright! Now tell me, did you feel any other things while you were searching in your core?"

"I felt a few actually... four I believe. Though one of them felt... unnatural." I said.

"The natural ones are moves of your same type, the unnatural one is move of a different. Try controlling that one now!" Marigold said.

I nodded, once again closing my eyes. I once again felt the three natural moves, and then the one unnatural move. I did as he said and tried to control the unnatural one, though I was quite sure where to transfer it to, so I just did it towards my claw again. I opened my eyes, and my claw now had a desaturated green glow on it. I tried to think of what move it would be, then I remembered that Zangoose learnt Fury Cutter. I once again swung at Marigold with it, making him stagger back again, but also beam.

"Very great work Rye! You're a natural!" He smiled. "We'll just need to practice on you learning to do these moves faster!"

I couldn't help but feel sort of proud of myself after learning so fast, so I nodded. "A-alright!"

I turned and looked at Bryan, who seemed quite happy with my progress. He walked over and pet me on the head.

"You're doing great buddy! You'll do great on the team!" He smiled, I yipped at him happily.

"Now then, do you believe you are ready to spar with me, Rye?" He asked.

I gave him a nod. "Yeah! I think I'm ready now!"

Marigold nodded, then his fist was suddenly shrouded in electricity. He lunged at me for the punch, I narrowly dodged the punch. I then closed my eyes, trying to control the power to use scratch as fast as possible, I was too slow though, since he avoided before I could land the swing.

"You'll have to be quicker than that!" Marigold charged up another punch, lunging once again. I dodged again, but he was a step ahead. As I moved to the side, he swung again knocked me back with full force. While getting up, I tried to channel a scratch, by the time I was up, Marigold was next to me, ready to swing again. It left him open for me to fake him out and hit him as hard as I could. He staggered a bit, then jumped back to get some distance.

"I see you've outsmarted me at close range... try long range then!" Suddenly a myriad of glowing stones appeared around him, then all fired at me. I panicked, and started running at an arc around Marigold, trying to avoid them as he continued to shoot them. It wasn't until then I realized how much faster this body was than a human body, it was honestly incredible. Marigold tired out from shooting stones, allowing me to charge at him, readying a scratch in the process. He had predicted that though, when I tried to get close, his whole body was building up in electricity. I saw my mistake too late, before I could escape, he released all the electricity, creating a large blast that shot me far backwards.

"Rye! You alright?" Bryan asked. It definitely hurt, no questions asked, but I felt that I could still keep going. Soon I stood up, giving Bryan a nod. "Alright! Just be careful!"

Marigold turned to me. "Haha! You've fallen for my famous Discharge trap! Do not feel ashamed though, it happens to all of my opponents!="

"Except ground types." Gaze corrected.

"Do not interrupt, Gaze!" Marigold cleared his throat. "Anyways, now it is time to kick things up a notch!" His mouth then started glowing with a blue energy, then he fired a large blue beam towards me. I panicked, trying to dodge by moving out of the way. but he only stopped for a moment before firing another one. At one point he faked me out, shooting the beam in front of me, it hit me before I was able to slow myself down. I fell down, but I decided to use this as bait. I once again readied a scratch as Marigold charged towards me with another thunder punch. I slid underneath him, striking him in the back and actually managing to knock him down to one knee. I quickly readied another one, striking him again before he could get back up. This time it was enough to knock him down.

His body started to be shrouded in electricity again, I knew I couldn't get away fast enough. Not knowing what to do, I tried to transfer one of the other natural feelings, this time I did to my arms instead of my claws, thinking it could help. I thought I was too slow, as he released the discharge, I closed my eyes and covered myself with my arms. But then...

I felt no pain.

I opened my eyes, looking forward to see a blueish, transparent shield in front of me. I knew protect?!

Marigold got up and saw, he was shocked. I looked to see Emma, Gaze, and Bryan were shocked as well. Marigold beamed again.

"Incredible! You knew you couldn't away fast enough, so you used protect instead! Great job thinking on your feet young one!"

I was still dumfounded, as well as out of breath. I barely managed a response. "I-I uh.. t-thanks!" I put my arms down, and the shield faded away.

"Hehe, I think that's enough sparring for now." Bryan came over to us. "You did great Rye! I didn't know you knew protect!"

All I could do was smile, I was just as surprised as they all were. But it still felt good to have learned to use my moves so quickly. Maybe, this wouldn't be so bad.

"Bryan! Lunch is ready!" We heard Jenna call from inside.

"Come on you guys, lets get some lunch!" Bryan said, and we started heading back into the kitchen. Though, Gaze seemed to call Emma back.

(Emma POV)

"Hey, Emma." Gaze called me back as we were walking inside. I turned to his direction.

"Yes, Gaze?" I asked.

"I need to talk to you for a moment." He said.

"Oh, alright." I turned to the others. "Hey Rye, we'll catch up with you all."

"Oh, Alright!" He, Mari, and Bryan continued towards the kitchen.

I went over to Gaze. "I assume this is about Rye, correct?"

"Yeah... And I'm you know what about him."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know much about it. He was new to our village before... the event. I never even got to meet him. All I know is that he was amnesiac once we met back at the hospital."

"Your village was a village with only Pokémon, correct?"

"Yes?"

"Pokémon don't have easy access to human-purchased items. Did you?"

"No, we did not."

I could that Gaze was in a mix of frustration and confusion. He huffed a bit. "Then what the hell is up with the kid?"

"I told you Gaze... I do not know him very well. Besides, he may have had a trainer before Bryan?"

"He has no human traced aside from Bryan and Jenna. Which are the only two who have come in contacted with him."

"And how do you know this?"

"It ain't easy to explain." He sighed. "You said his aura was golden, right?"

"How did you know that?"

"I overheard."

"And what about it?"

"That kid... he isn't normal. And if there's something up, we need to find it out before it gets us all killed."

"You're overreacted Gaze, Rye seems nice enough anyways."

He paused for a moment, then sighed. "I guess you have a point... look, I don't think whatever's up is his fault. But… we have to stay on guard. Just... do me a favor, he trusts you the most at the moment. Can you keep an eye on him? Make sure nothing weird is going on?"

I was going to tell him about what happened this morning, but it wasn't my place to tell. So I nodded. "I'll tell you if I see something odd."

He nodded, and we both made our way back into the kitchen. I couldn't say I didn't agree with Gaze, because he had a point. There was something different off about Rye...

And the more we knew, the safer we could keep everyone. Including him.

(AN: I deeply apologize for the lateness of this chapter! I had written it awhile ago, but the file had gotten corrupted, forcing me to start over. It was a bit demotivating, but on the plus side, I do feel that I improved and changed a lot of thing that better helped the explanation of things in this chapter. Again, sorry for the lateness, I will do my best to get things out sooner next time!)


	6. Chapter 6

(Rye POV)

Emma and Gaze came back inside after a few minutes when we had started eating. They sat at their respective bowls and began eating as well. They didn't seem to be upset about anything, so I figured things were fine.

I noticed Marigold was sweating once they sat down. I couldn't hear it completely clearly, but I could've sworn I heard him ask Gaze "You didn't talk about... did you?". And then I saw Gaze shake his head in response, Marigold breathed a relieved sigh. I shrugged it off, figuring it was none of my business anyways. After we had finished up lunch, Rye came over us all.

"Hey guys, I was wondering if you'd wanna head up to the local training center? It'd be great to get some practice in against people other than each other!"

Training center huh? I wasn't sure if I was ready to take on real battles at the moment, but I knew getting more practice in would be good to be prepared for a dangerous situation. Everyone else seemed on board with the idea as well.

"Alright! Let me just get my bag." Bryan went down the hallway towards his room.

"So, have you guys been to this training center?" I asked Gaze.

"Heh, too many times to count. Bryan's taken us there ever since we were prevoles." Gaze said. "Though it has been quite awhile."

"Me and Gaze were two of the most dominating when we were there!" Marigold proudly posed.

"Except when you lost to a single Chinchou with Volt Absorb." Gaze corrected.

"Gaze! Nobody asked you! Quit making me look bad!" Marigold shouted angrily. Gaze just chuckled.

Bryan soon came back with his bag, he had four pokeballs in his hands. I recongnized the luxury ball as mine, and the premier ball as Emma's. One of the other ones was mostly pink with tan shapes on it going from the bottom to slightly above a blue ring that goes horizontally across the ball. It had a purple button in the middle. I remembered it as a heal ball from the games. The other one seemed to be a normal pokeball, red and white with black across the middle.

"Ready to go guys?" He asked. Everyone nodded. Bryan put Emma inside her ball, her body converting into a red beam of light and being quick absorbed into the ball. The same went for Gaze and Marigold. Gaze was put inside the heal ball, and Marigold was put inside the normal ball. Lastly was me, Bryan pulled out my luxury ball, pressing the button on the center, causing a red beam to shoot out and hit me, I closed my eyes as the same flash of red engulfed my vision as I was absorbed inside the ball.

I opened my eyes, realizing I was in the ball again. I looked around for a moment, still seeing nothing, besides my large, fluffy tail that appeared behind me. I had rarely thought to acknowledge the tail, it had already become so natural to me. I wasn't sure if I liked that or not.

As I dwelled on it, that feeling came back, that sudden feeling of happiness that this pokeball made me feel. I didn't do anything to deny it, I just embraced the feeling. It felt so good to just, wash away anything I had worried about for awhile. I noticed that I was chuckling a little, the chuckle slowly turned to laughter, and laughter turned to howling. I didn't understand how simply being inside a ball made me so happy, but I loved it, it was like, my own little get away.

After awhile of laughter, I noticed a flash of light coming towards me, and I faintly heard Bryan's voice. I covered my eyes as I could feel my body start to reform itself, the red light slowly fading and revealing that I was out of the pokeball now, I had to squint to adjust to the new lighting. Once my eyes finally worked for a change, I noticed we were in a building, the others were out of their pokeballs as well.

The room we were in was mostly blue, but it was rather small. It was covered in paintings of different Pokémon, mostly legendaries. Xerneas, Rayquaza, Dialga, Arceus, and that strange cat-looking electric type that I never found out the name of. They were all pretty neat to look at. Bryan seemed to be talking to a person at the desk, while he was, the others came over to me.

"Liking the place, eh?" Gaze asked as I continued to admire all the paintings.

"Yeah! It's fascinating to see all these paintings!" I said.

"Indeed it is, felt the same way once I first came. Nothin' changed since either, brings back memories."

Emma was looking towards the painting of the Electric cat. Wasn't she blind? What did she find so interesting? Before I could ask, Bryan called us all over. He was holding 4 white bandanas. He went put one on each of our necks. I didn't oppose it, though I was confused.

Emma beat me to the question. "What are these for?" She turned to Marigold.

"They are so nobody gets confused and mixes up Pokémon, white has always been the color Bryan's gotten since we got here. You get used to it!"

"I see.. interesting." Emma seemed to be back to that... deadpan state? I wasn't even sure what to call it.

Eventually we were allowed into the training area. We were walked down a hallway towards a large two side door. Bryan opened the door, on the other side was a large place that looked quite like a gym. There were multiple different sections, each of which had many people and Pokémon training at. Some were doing exercises, some were meditating, but the majority were battling on large mats.

"So, you guys up for some battles?" Bryan asked us. We all nodded, making our way towards one of the mats.

On the other side was a girl, probably around Bryan's age, maybe a little younger. she was wearing a black hoodie with a Pokeball on it, and a pair of ripped up shorts. She had short, dark red hair that stuck out of her hood, which she had up.

"Guess you're my opponent huh?" Her voice was surprisingly upbeat, didn't match her look at all.

"Uh, yeah! Wanna do a few one on one rounds?" Bryan asked her.

"Hell yeah!"

The girl pulled out three pokeballs, all of them luxury balls. She threw them up, and out of them came three new Pokémon. One of them was a bipedal creature that resembled a cat and a weasel. It had a red feather sticking out of the side of it's head. It also had three feathers for tails, and large claws on both hands. It was a Sneasel if I was recalling properly.

The second one was a strange, yellow Pokémon. But it was wrapped in a strange leaf cocoon. It had white eyes lined with black around the edges. It had leaves on either side of it's wrapping hanging out. It was a Swadloon, it looked pretty meet to see one in person.

The final one was one that looked a bit different than it was supposed, It was a mostly purple with large, unnatural ears. The bottom of it's ears and it's belly were a cream color, and it had two feelers hanging from it's ears that were also cream colored. It had a small fluffy white tail and dark green eyes. It was an Audino, but it looked discolored. Aren't they usually pink?

"Yo! Wassup suckas!" The Audino shouted at us, I could tell he was the leader of sorts for the three.

"Who's ready for a beating they'll never forget" The Sneasel said, I noticed it's voice was more feminine.

"Cuz we're here to dish it out!" The Swadloon, who's voice was more masculine, said. "Name's Tara"

"Call me Skylar." The Sneasel said.

"And big bad Whiplash!" Shouted the Audino.

"Uhh, Nice to meet you all?" Marigold said.

Whiplash huffed angrily, getting in Marigold's face. "Who in hell said you got to speak?!"

"M-my apologies..." Marigold seemed intimidated, despite being much large than Whiplash.

"Hey, watch you're tongue." Gaze spoke up.

"Eh?" Whiplash turned to Gaze. "And who might you be?"

"They call me Gaze." Gaze now got in his face, a smile on his face. "And I don't appreciate the way you're talkin' to my bro."

"Imma talk to whoeva I want, how I want, when I want, punk. You ain't got nothin' on me."

"Whiplash, chill out." The trainer said.

Whiplash glanced at her, then back at Gaze. "This ain't over." He walked back over to the girl.

"Anyways, who you gonna use first?" The girl asked Bryan.

Bryan turned to Emma. "You wanna go, Emma?"

Emma look in his direction and nodded. 'I'd love too.' Emma took her place on the mat, right in front of Bryan.

The girl looked down at Tara. "Go get her, Tara." Tara nodded and jumped onto the mat, facing Emma.

"Surprised you could even find the mat, no eyes." Tara snickered.

Emma just smiled, and this time it wasn't just a flash of one. It was a full fledged smile, an excited smile.

The girl trainer looked at Bryan. "Hey, before we start, I never got your name."

"It's Bryan! What's yours?"

"Just call me Kellie!" She said. "Now, shall we begin?"

"Yeah! Ready when you are!"

Kellie took her hood off, letting her red hair now fall. "Alright! Tara, show her who's boss with Energy Ball!"

Tara opened his mouth, a green ball of energy formed and shot out at Emma. Emma dodged out of the way of it, charging at Tara. Tara shot a string out of his mouth and onto the ceiling, swinging over her into the air, then shooting out another energy ball. Emma turned but ran right into it, being knocked back.

"Emma, Double team!" Bryan shouted.

Emma got herself up, putting her paws together. Suddenly, copies of her started appearing around the mat. Tara looked around shocked, not sure which one too attack.

"Razor Leaf!" Kellie shouted.

The leaves on Tara's head started glowing, he rapidly started shooting sharp leaves all around the mat, hitting all of the Emma copies and making them disappear.

"Emma, Blaze kick!"

The real Emma came up behind Tara, her leg being shrouded in light blue flames. Before Tara could react, Emma had kicked him all the way across the mat. I still could help but notice how ecstatic Emma looked. The smiled plastered one her face, I knew she was enjoying this, maybe too much.

"Tara, Synthesis!"

Tara's body started to glow bright green, he seemed to be regenerating his health.

"Hold nothing back Emma, Double team, then Blaze kick!"

Emma nodded, putting her paws together once again. The newly appear copies all dashed at Tara, readying legs shrouded in blue flames.

"Tara, Endure!"

Tara's body flashed white for a split-second. All the Emma copies landed blow after blow, kick after kicking. They practically buried Tara, I couldn't even see him anymore. Eventually, things cleared up as the Emma copies started disappearing. Somehow, Tara was still up, just barely, he had burn marks all over him. But somehow he was still up. Both Bryan and Emma were shocked, Bryan quickly tried to finish it.

"Emma, use P-"

Kellie cut him off. "Tara, Flail!"

Tara jumped up, throwing himself at Emma at full power. Emma was still shocked, so she was caught off guard, getting hit hard and being knocked down. She was down for a good moment after that, she was definitely out.

Kellie went over to Tara, picking him up and embracing him. "See? I knew it'd work!" She spoke happily. Tara gave her a smile in return.

Bryan ran to Emma, me and Marigold did too. "Emma, are you alright?" I asked.

Emma slowly came to, her head turning up to see us. "Ugh... Yeah, I'm alright." She said, getting up. The adrenaline from before had faded, she seemed back to that deadpan state again.

"You were great out there Emma, we just gotta work on how fast you can sense things." Marigold said with a smile.

Gaze came over. "Yeah, you did good out there."

Emma gave a slight smile back to them, nodding. "Yeah, alright."

Skylar and Whiplash walked over, eyeing all of us. Then stopping at Emma.

"Oh Emma, I got to be frank with you here." Skylar said, the sarcasm all to obvious. "Truth is, you fight worse than you see!"

Both Skylar and Whiplash started laughing like there was no tomorrow. Emma didn't seem to care much. I on the other hand was pretty damn angry. But Marigold seemed even more pissed than me. He walked over to the both of them, staring Skylar down.

"Excuse me, but I do not think that is how you should be talking to one of my trainees." He spoke sternly.

"Can it big guy, I think the daycare is more fitting for you than the battlefield." Skylar responded.

I could tell Gaze was about to go and say something, but Marigold glanced at him, seemed to be telling him he could handle it.

"How about you get on that mat, and I can personally show you who belongs in the daycare?"

"Ohoho, big words from an equally big guy. And yet such a small brain." Skylar laughed, shaking her head. "Very well."

They both got on the mat, Skylar was grinning a devilish one. Marigold was just staring her down, I never thought he could be so serious.

"Skylar, Feint Attack!" Kellie shouted. Skylar ran at Marigold at a high speed, slashing him in the chest before he had anytime to react, Marigold only stumbled, but quite a bit. He definitely was able to take hits well, but Skylar had a speed advantage.

"Thunderbolt!" Bryan shouted.

Marigold sent out a bolt of electricity towards Skylar, who dodged in quick fashion. Marigold kept shooting bolts at Skylar, but she was too fast for them.

"Jump and use Throat Chop! Then Ice Punch!" Kellie instructed.

Skylar leaped towards Marigold, hitting in directly in the throat with a harsh looking strike. Marigold staggered back, coughing from the hit. Skylar didn't let up, her fist shrouding in what looked like ice, hitting Marigold directly in the chest. Marigold was still able to stay standing, and without needing command from Bryan, he managed to hit a Thunder punch on Skylar while she was close, knocking her back quite a bit.

"Marigold, Dragon Pulse!"

"Dodge and get him with Feint Attack!"

Marigold shot a blue beamed out at Skylar, not stopping as she ran in a circle around him to try and avoid it, Skylar was moving in close again for her Feint Attack. Bryan saw and took advantage.

"Marigold, set it up!" Set it up? What did that mean?

Marigold was still firing at Skylar, but I noticed his body was being charged up with electricity. I then realized he was using the same strategy he had on me when we were sparring! Skylar was in close now, jumping up for the strike.

"Now, Discharge!" Bryan shouted.

Marigold stopped firing, spreading his arms out as a large wave of electric energy was shot out of him. Skylar didn't have time to react to it, get knocked back all the way into the wall of the building. She slid down to the ground, she was definitely out.

We went over to Marigold, who looked quite exhausted.

"You were great Mari!" Bryan said, Me and Gaze nodded in agreement.

He smirked, striking his pose. "The Mighty Marigold is well known for putting big talkers in their place!"

We all laughed. Emma then looked up in his direction.

"Congrats Marigold, even without seeing I can tell you're quite a tough fighter." Emma smiled at him.

Marigold now fully smiled. "Thank you Emma, it is what I do best!"

Whiplash seemed pissed, walking over to us. "You must think you're real hot stuff huh? Just because you won doesn't make you any good."

"No need to not take defeat so harshly bud." Gaze said.

"Thing is, I didn't lose. I'd be happy to hand you an ass whooping."

Before the two could get into a fight, Kellie spoke up. "Alright guys, we gotta head out about now." She said.

"It was fun!" Bryan said. "Let's battle again sometime!"

Whiplash looked at Gaze, dead in the eyes. "Next time we meet, I ain't playing games." He said, walking back towards Kellie. Gaze said nothing, just chuckled.

"C'mon guys, lets head home." He said, pulling out all of our pokeballs, one by one putting us back in. When he got to me, he petted my head.

"Sorry you didn't get to fight today buddy, I'll sure to give you a turn next time alright?" He said. I nodded and yipped at him, he pet me again, chuckling. Pulling out my luxury ball and pressing the button. That same flash of light consumed me, as it did I realized I had quite a bit about Marigold and Emma by just watching them battle. But not just them on their own...

I wonder...


	7. Chapter 7

I must've fallen asleep, because when my eyes opened I didn't feel as if I was my pokeball. I realized I was dreaming, because I saw the same look-alike to me, who I now knew as Cope, staring me down.

"Why hello again Rye, it's a pleasure to see you again." He had the same smirk as he did last time.

I stared him dead in the eye. "I'd like to say the same, but you still haven't answered everything I've asked."

Cope shook his head and chuckled. "Oh Rye... How I wish I could..." He looked me over. "Tell me Rye, have you been missing your life as a human? Or are you enjoying the way you are?"

I was silent for a moment, not sure how to answer, eventually I spoke. "Honestly... being a Pokémon isn't all that bad so far... I have a home.. I have people that most of care about me, it's honestly nothing like I used to have."

Cope looked down for a moment, then looked back up. "You don't miss anyone from your previous life?"

"Well... no one except for big sister. It's funny honestly, all we sorta had was each other." I looked down to emptiness below me. "I don't know where she is now, or if she's even here. And... it hurts to know I may never see her again."

Cope looked at me, not blinking for a moment. "Do you... remember your sister's name?"

At first I thought was a dumb question, but then the more I thought about it, the more I realized, I didn't remember. I remembered her face, her personality, all of our good times together, but I couldn't for the life of me remember her name. But she was my sister! Why couldn't I remember her name?!

I grabbed my head in frustration. "W-what the hell?! Why don't I remember?!"

Cope sighed. "I see... so it is true..."

I was angry now, I could feel tears enter my eyes. "What?! What's true?! I'm sick of you not telling me!"

Cope almost seemed to start shaking, as if he was just as close to tears. "I can't tell you everything... but I will tell you this..." He came close to me, I could see tears running down his face just like mine. "Your sister... here Rye... find her... I'll... make... sure of it.." His voice was fading out again, he couldn't even speak full sentences.

"C-cope?" I asked, I was almost worried now.

"D-damn it.." He wiped the tears from his eyes. "You're... waking.. up..."

"W-what?! W-wait, I-I have another question!" I shouted desperately. "H-how will I know it's her if I don't know her name?!"

He cracked a smile at me. "N-next time..."

I shot awake, out of breath, confused, any sort of way to describe panic. I think I might have been screaming in my sleep. I looked around, I was in me and Emma's bedroom. Emma wasn't in her bed, she must've gotten up already. I slowly managed to come my breath down, but my heart was still racing, it was making my chest hurt.

I looked down at myself, nothing but my fur, and my scar down my chest. I had to think about everything Cope had said, my sister was here... but where? How would I find her? I tried again to think, but I still just couldn't remember her name... damn it. Before I could think anymore, the door opened, but it wasn't Bryan, nor Emma, to my worry, it was Vince.

"Oh so you're the little bastard doing all the yelling?" He went over to me, I felt my ears droop down in fear. "Listen you little runt, it's Saturday, and I ain't looking to be woken up by your damn nightmares. So either learn to shut the hell up, or don't sleep for all I care." he bent down close, too close. "Don't let this shit happen again, or it'll be your ass." I just nodded at him, shivering. Something about his tone just gave me fear. He stared right through me, shaking his head and walking out the room.

I waited a few minutes, not wanting to leave the room if he was still out in the hallway. Eventually I pushed open the door, looking down the hallway to see if he was around. Didn't seem like he was anywhere. I walked out and went towards the living room, there I saw Jenna sitting on the couch, typing something on a laptop. She had a bowl of strawberries next to her.

She noticed me walk in. "Oh! Why hello there little cutie!" She bent down, picking me up to my distaste. "You're up late, it's already almost noon." Almost noon? Man, I slept later than I thought.

Jenna looked down. "I know Vince got mad at you earlier, but he's not as bad as he's leading off. Trust me, you just gotta show you're not afraid of him alright? Gaze does it all the time!" She smiled at me.

Her positive attitude made me feel better about it, so I smiled a bit and nodded at her.

She smiled at me. "Bryan's out in the garden training, you can go out there if you'd like." She set me down, going back to her laptop. I didn't exactly feel in the mood to train again, not after everything that I happened in that dream. Jenna looked down and saw me sitting and looking up at her. She giggled. "You wanna relax up here with me?" She bent down and picked me up, placing me in her lap. It was rather comfortable, she gently stroked my head as she continued to work on her computer. After awhile, I heard my stomach growl quite loudly. Much to my embarrassment, Jenna heard it too, giggling and petting my head.

"I completely forgot, you missed breakfast!" She took the bowl of strawberries, and set it close to me. "Here you go, I'm gonna start lunch soon but this should be a nice snack for now!" She smiled.

I yipped in thanks, munching on the strawberries. She seemed quite happy with it, going back to her computer. The strawberries were definitely freshly picked and not store-bought. Strawberries were my favorite fruit, so it was refreshing to still be able to eat those. As I ate, I thought about everything that Cope had said, about my sister, and the fact I couldn't remember her name. What else did Cope know? And why couldn't he tell me anything? Where was my sister? And why couldn't I remember her name? It just added on to other thoughts. I still didn't know why I was how I was, or who had attack the village I was presumably apart of. Maybe these things were connected? Did anyone know the attackers of the village? If I at least knew that, I'd have a place to start. But how would I get access to information like that? It's not like I could just ask someone to help me, I had no way to talk to anyone who could. I was so lost in thought, that I didn't realize the bowl was empty. I looked down to see my paw in the empty bowl, grabbing at strawberries that weren't there. Jenna saw me and smiled.

"Oh, you want more?" She asked, I was still pretty hungry, so I nodded and yipped. "Alright! I'll be right back!" She picked up the bowl and made her way into the kitchen.

I laid on the couch and waited, my attention turning to her laptop. On the screen was some sort of word document, from reading it I could see she was writing some sort of novel. Was Jenna an author? I was sort of invested now, I placed my paw on the trackpad, which didn't feel right at first, and started scrolling down the document, reading each page. Seemed like a sort of fantasy story, just with Pokemon in them, she had definitely been working on it well. And it wasn't the cliché type of fantasy either, I read a lot of fantasy when I was young, and none of them were this in depth. I wondered if Jenna had any books already published, maybe I could sneak a read at them in the future.

A few minutes later I heard Jenna's footsteps. I quickly laid back down like how I was before, hoping she wouldn't get suspicious. She sat back on the couch, setting the bowl of strawberries near me as I laid back in her lap. I started munching them when she looked back on her laptop.

"That's strange, I wasn't on this page earlier." She didn't seem suspicious of me, so I silently sighed in relief. I don't know if hiding the things I knew was a good idea, but I wasn't really willing to take that risk at the moment.

I munched on my strawberries, thinking more about what I could do given my current situation. I watched Jenna type on, still reading along with it. It took a few moments for me to realize I was staring right at an answer, the laptop! I could look up something about the village attack, and maybe find out who did it! And just maybe, I'll have some start on where to be looking! Question is, how will I be able to even get access to the laptop? I obviously can't just ask yo use it, for a number of reasons. I'd have to find sometime to sneak onto it. Maybe at night once everyone was asleep? I could try that.

I soon finished my second bowl of strawberries, let out a light burp as I swallowed the last one. Jenna looked at me and smiled, scratching me under my stomach. I couldn't help but purr to this, which was strangely becoming more natural to me. I wasn't entirely against that though.

"Glad to see you enjoyed those! I'll have to plant more for you since you like them so much!" She gave one last pat on the head, then going back to her work.

I hopped down from the couch, making my way down the hallway towards the garden. I walked out to see Emma and Marigold sparring, with Gaze and Bryan watching on. Bryan turned and saw me, making his way over.

"Hey little buddy! You must've slept like a log!" He said petting me across the head. The others stopped and walked over.

"Rye, you've been missing out on training! We can't be having that!" Marigold commented.

"Eh, ain't nothing wrong with a bit of extra snooze." Gaze said.

"There are a mountain of things wrong with it, Gaze!" Marigold begrudgingly spoke.

Gaze chuckled. "Hey the kid's new, cut him some slack."

"Hmph, only this once!" Marigold stated. Gaze smirked and winked at me.

The rest of the day went pretty normally, I did a few more sparring matches with Marigold. I got pretty good at utilizing my moves quicker too. I was curious why Gaze never fought with us during training, but I figured I just hadn't been there to see it, so I thought nothing of it for the time being. Soon it was getting late, we all decided to turn in for the night. Bryan took me and Emma to our bedroom.

"Goodnight guys, tomorrow I think we could go out and let you guys explore the city! There's a bunch of cool places I'd love to take you guys too!" Bryan smiled, that sounded fun to me. So I yipped in response. Emma yipped as well. Bryan shut the door, and we both laid on our respective beds. I waited for awhile to be sure Emma fell asleep, I soon heard her snoring, I got up and slowly went over to the door.

Bryan luckily had left the door a bit cracked, so I was able to push open the door. The lights were off, but I was still able to see in the dark fairly well. I made my way towards the living room looking for Jenna's laptop. I couldn't find it anywhere, until I looked up on a counter and saw it there. I had to get up there without making noise, easier said then done.

I carefully made my way up by climbing on the shelves, once I got to the top, I looked down the hallway to see if anyone's lights turned on. Coast was clear, I went over to the laptop, it was a lot bigger than I expected, as well as heavier. I managed to lift it up, carefully climbing down with it and taking it over to the couch. I climbed up, setting the laptop down and opening it up.

Surprisingly she didn't have a password on the computer, which was lucky for me. I went on the search engine, which was cleverly named "Bulbasearch". I got a chuckle out of it, then used my claws to type on the keyboard. I searched to see if I could find anything about the village attack, eventually a result popped up with an article about the attack itself, as well as suspected culprits of it. I read It aloud quietly.

"An act of mass genocide was issued on a local Pokémon village near Silvallage city, it is widely assumed based on evidence and previous attacks of similar results that the culprits of this attack was the group well known as the 'Cult of Perfection'. A large Cult of worshipers who make sacrifices of other's lives to achieve their unknown and unwanted goals. Only two Pokémon were survivors of this attack, a Riolu and a Zangoose, who are now owned by a boy by the name of Bryan Celshado. Cops have left the remains of this village closed to the public, for the sake of preserving any extra evidence. But it is assumed that it will be opened for viewing within the next couple of days."

Cult of Perfection? I didn't remember any cults in Pokémon. I clicked a link leading to a website which had an article about the group. Once again I quietly read it aloud.

"The Cult of Perfection are a group of believers dedicated to sacrificing the lives of people and Pokémon to achieve their unknown goals. It is unknown exactly who this cult worships, but one assumption made by many is they are looking to create a world ideal to themselves and their beliefs. In turn they lack the caring of how society feels about this exchange. It is unknown where this malicious cult resides, nor where their next targeted attack is. Their most recent attack was on a local village near Silvallage city. Cops are looking for any evidence to find and end the actions of this cult, any prior knowledge of this cult is recommended to be reported to the cops immediately. Many haven't taken this cult seriously as of late, but after the hundreds of lives they've taken, not taken them as a real threat would be an act of ignorance and stupidity."

So this whole "Cult of Perfection" was who attacked this village huh? Damn... this went a lot deeper than I thought it did. I wasn't gonna get anywhere else from here unless I got to the village, maybe I could find a way to convince Bryan to take us there once it's opened to the public. For now I just gotta find out more if I can.

After awhile, I felt my eyes start to close, but I quickly shook myself awake. I realized I was getting pretty tired, so I decided it'd be best to turn in for the night. I picked up the laptop, carefully climbing back up the shelves with it and placing it back where I found it, I tip-toed my way back to my bedroom, shutting the door behind me. Emma was still asleep luckily, so I was able to slid back into my bed without her waking up. I let out a yawn, soon drifting off to sleep.

...

"Hey, wake up little buddy." I felt someone shaking me, sounded like Bryan's voice.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw Bryan looking down at me. I sat up and yawned, rubbing my eyes, yipping tiredly.

Bryan chuckled. "I see you're quite the sleeper. I know you're still tired, but there's a lot I want us to do today! You think you're up for it?" He asked. I stretched my arms, giving him another yip, this time more awake. He smiled widely now. "Glad to hear! C'mon, the others are waiting."

We walked out to the living room, where Gaze, Mari and Emma were all chatting. I went over to see what the chat was about.

"I will say, it has been awhile since I've gotten a good look at the city." Marigold said.

"Yeah, might be nice to explore again." Gaze said.

Marigold turned to see me. "Ah, Rye! Are you excited to see the city today?"

I nodded. "Yep! Can't wait."

"I wonder what kind of food this city has..." Emma said.

"Only the absolute best! Aside of Madam Jenna's cooking of course." Marigold said.

"Alright guys, you all ready?" Bryan asked. We all nodded, Bryan smiled. "Alright, let's go! I'll let you guys be out of your pokeballs this time around."

We all walked out the house. I realized I hadn't gotten a good look outside until now, the front yard was pretty average, but in the distance I said a fairly big city with quite a few tall buildings. We made our way down the street, I saw a few neighboring houses with little kids playing outside with their Pokémon. Eventually we got to the main city, and it was packed with people and Pokémon. Cars were zooming by, people were getting from place to place. Definitely seemed like a popular city.

"Here we are guys!" Bryan said. "C'mon! I'll take you guys to one of the shops."

We all walked down the street. There were a lot of cool looking shops, some for general items, some were barber shops for both people and Pokémon, the one we went to was a shop for accessories and outfits for Pokémon. Inside the shop was fairly big, it had shelves upon shelves of different accessories to choose from.

"Take a look around guys, see what you like! I'll see if I can find something for Emma." Bryan said, him and Emma made their way down to a different part of the shop. Me, Mari, and Gaze did the same.

I saw a lot of cool looking things, ribbons, scarves, bracelets. Too many things to choose from. I got to the back of the shop, there I saw something that caught my attention. It was a strange looking armband, it was mostly white, but had a few blue strips and a red circle in the center. I wasn't sure exactly what I liked about it, but I thought it looked good enough to get. I picked it up, putting it on my arm, I felt stronger in a way, it was definitely a good feeling.

I went back to where Bryan was. I saw Emma there with him, she had pitch black sunglasses on instead of her bandages. They actually looked really good on her, and they didn't hinder her in any way since she was already unable to see.

"Hey Emma, liking the new shades!" I said.

She smiled. "Thank you Rye, what did you pick out?"

"I got this cool looking armband, it sorta makes me feel stronger, so I definitely wanna keep it!" I said.

Marigold and Gaze came back over. Marigold had a yellow and red sash wrapped around him from his shoulder. Gaze had on a blue and partially white scarf around his neck.

"I see you two found things you liked!" I said.

"Heh, yep. Took Mari ages to pick something, I had to pick for him." Gaze said.

"You did not!" Marigold retorted. "I simply asked for your suggestion!"

Gaze just chuckle, then looked back at me. "Heh, nice armband kid." He said. "It suits you."

"Thanks!" I smiled.

"I must say Emma, those shades fit you very well!" Marigold commented.

Emma smiled at him. "Thanks, Bryan figured they would."

After Bryan purchased all our accessories, we made our way out of the store. We walked around the streets some more. We saw some cool looking spots, there were some duckletts swimming in a nearby pond, as well as some trainers flying on Pokémon like Honchrow and Madibuzz.

It was getting dark, so we stopped by what seemed to be a sushi restaurant. The inside smelled amazing, I was never the hugest fan of sushi, but it's smell was incredible.

I was surprised to see that they allowed Pokémon to sit at the tables. We got a table for all of us, Marigold and Emma sat on one side while me and Bryan sat on the other. Gaze said he wasn't hungry, and that he was just gonna wait outside for awhile. Bryan seem to get the memo from him. I couldn't help but noticed how quick Bryan was to trust Gaze by himself, it was intriguing, but I brushed it off. Marigold and Emma were chatting, so Bryan turned to me.

"You know Rye... I'm glad I was able to take you with me. And.. I'm sorry for everything's that's happened to you two. I know it's not easy to get over losing something so big... but... I want to make you guys feel like you have a home... and a family.." He said, petting my head. I felt bad, I didn't have any prior attachment to the village I was apart of so briefly. The only thing I remembered about it was it being destroyed. I gave a a small yip, It did feel nice for someone to reassure me about these things, even if I didn't feel involved as I should.

"I already told Emma about this earlier, so I wanted to ask... I got in contact with the police.. and they said that they're planning to open the village for public viewing once they clear anything dangerous. They said it'd only take a few days, you think you'd be up to take a look?" He asked.

This was exactly what I needed, so I gave him a happy yip in response. He smiled, scratching me behind the ear.

"Glad to hear little buddy."

Soon we got our food, each getting a plate of amazing looking sushi. Remember when I said I wasn't a fan of sushi? This sushi definitely changed that. It was so good that I had finished my plate even before Marigold had, which I felt funnily proud about.

We all finished up and made our way out of the restaurant, it was night now. Gaze was leaning by a pole, he turned to see us and made his way back over. He turned to me.

"Heya, sushi was good wasn't it?"

I nodded. "Yeah! Best sushi I've ever had for sure!"

Gaze's expression flashed a frown, it was so sudden I almost didn't notice it. But quickly he was back to a smirk. "Heh, glad to hear. I felt the same when I first had it."

We started making our way back home now, Bryan had let me and Emma rest on his shoulders. As we were walking, I felt a yawn escape my mouth. It'd had been a pretty long day. I started to wonder, would I see Cope again? I had never talked to him yesterday. I started to think about when I saw him, he had started crying. He had started out so smug... but.. he seemed to care. He wanted to help me find my sister, he wasn't just some imagination. There was a reason he couldn't tell me everything I wanted to know, he's showed me that he's willing to help me how he can.

Before I drifted off on Bryan's shoulder. I decided it, next time I saw Cope, whether was tonight or not. I'd trust what he says, something about him... I couldn't understand it... he felt...

Familiar...


	8. Chapter 8

The next few days went by pretty normally. Most of it was fill with training,. For the most part, learning about my new body was real fun! Gaze never would spar with us though, even Bryan tried to convince him a few times. Seems like he wasn't a big fan of it. I hadn't heard anything from Cope either, and I wondered if I should be concerned about it. I decided to try and brush it off for now. Finally, Bryan came over to me and Emma after a day of training.

"Hey you two. You guys did great out there today!" Bryan said. We both yipped at him to say our thanks, he crouched down to our level. "Hey, remember when I told you two about the Village being opened for public viewing? Well I just saw on the news that it was opened today! You guys up to go?"

Me and Emma looked at each other, well, sort of. Then we turned back to Bryan and both yipped in agreement.

Bryan smiled. "Alright then! I'll go get my things, then we can head out!"

Bryan went off back inside. Gaze and Marigold came over to us.

"So, you guys heading over to that Village of yours?" Gaze asked.

"Yeah! I think it'll be good for us to see it again. I never got to know it very well." I sort of lied, since I hadn't really ever seen it.

"I don't believe I ever properly said this to either of you, but I'm sorry that this happened." Marigold said apologetically.

I wasn't sure if it was my place to respond, luckily Emma did before me. "It's alright... I just hope there's something salvageable there as evidence. I need to know who did this." Emma put her head down, I patted her on the shoulder. I had considered telling her about who did it, but I wasn't sure I had enough info to be sure. I decided I'd tell her if I really needed to.

"The police probably took most of it already, but I'm sure there might be something of value left there." I said, trying to reassure her. "We'll find something Emma, I promise."

That seemed to work. "Thank you Rye..."

Bryan came back out, prompting us to come so we can get going. We both said bye to Gaze and Marigold then headed out. Bryan went over to a bike rack, in which there were two bikes, both were identical. Bryan took one of the bikes of the rack, turning to us.

"I figured since it's just us three, you guys can ride with me on my bike." Bryan said. We both nodded, going over to him to climb on his shoulders, Emma was a bit off with climbing up so I helped guide her onto him. I then climbed up on his opposite shoulder.

"Alright, here we go guys!" He began pedaling, starting off slow then picking up speed as he went along. I didn't expect a simple bike ride to be so fun! I felt my fur get blown back by the wind. Looking at the city while feeling the breeze was just, incredible! I looked over at Emma, noticing a smile on her face. She almost seemed to be thinking, like this reminded her of something. I couldn't help but smile watching her.

We rode for longer than it felt like, maybe about half an hour. Eventually coming up on what looked like a forest. Bryan stopped his bike, me and Emma climbing off of him as he put it over two a nearby bike rack, locking it in place. We walked over to the forest, where there was a security guard standing in front of it.

"Can I help you?" He asked, looking down at Bryan.

"Yes um, I'm here to visit the village. You know, the one that was destroyed about 2 weeks ago." Bryan said.

The guard looked Bryan over, then looking down at us. "Wait a minute... these are the two survivors of that whole ordeal aren't they? I heard about em' on the news."

"Yeah they are, I figured it'd be good for them to at least see the village again, you know, since it was their home." Bryan said, I couldn't help but feel sort of ashamed.

"I'm sure if I should be allowing someone your age to go in without an adult... but... You seem to have your heart in the right place." The guard stepped aside. "Go on ahead. We cleared out most of the stuff left so feel free to keep whatever you find, it'd probably be yours anyways."

"Thank you sir!" Bryan said, we all walked pass the guard to enter the forest proper.

We walked down a stone pathway, it had a lot of dead grass over it. Emma would stop every once in awhile to feel the stone. Me and Bryan didn't stop here, I knew it wasn't easy to think about what happened.

We eventually got to a big opening in the forest. In the opening was, well, a lot. For one there were multiple hut like things, they were enough size for a Pokémon me or Emma's size to fit. Most of them were either just piles of ruble, or at the very least missing a part of a wall or a roof. It was, hard to see it and not feel sad. I didn't think I'd have this much emotion for a village I had no memory of, but I could help but feel... emotional while looking at it all destroyed. There were a few other people there with their Pokémon, probably curious about the carnage and wanting to get a look at It for themselves.

"You two can go look around, just come back over when your done. And.. take as long as you need. We have all day." Bryan said. We both nodded, making our way towards one of the less-destroyed huts.

This one had a massive hole in the wall and the roof, as well as it was missing it's door. Not to mention it looked like it had been singed by a flamethrower or something, it was a miracle it hadn't burnt down.

I peeked through the wall, the inside looked just as bad. Holes were in the walls, some so small they must've been bullet holes, and the whole place looked like it had been burnt. I climbed over a bit of the ruble, walking in and really getting a good look. I couldn't believe that anyone would want to do this, let alone to this extent. Emma followed me in.

"This was the home of a good friend of mine... I remember the layout of this place so well." Emma walked around the hut, feeling for things that were familiar to her. I did the same, hoping maybe I'd remember what had happened. Eventually Emma spoke up again.

"Hey Rye, can you help me with something over here?" I came over to see a what looked like a large handle to something that was buried under a bunch of stone. "Help me pull this out."

I nodded and we both grabbed at the handle, pulling as hard as we could. Eventually we managed to pull out what seemed like a large chest. The lock on it had been broken, so Emma opened it, feeling inside.

"So it's still here." She said, pulling out what seemed like a long staff of sorts. It was made of stone, a few cracks were in it as well. Emma felt it over, somehow I could tell her eyes were closed despite her sunglasses being on. I didn't say anything, I didn't have a place to. Eventually, she spoke.

"This was her father's staff." Emma smirked. "Everyone admired the guy, even me. He was such a nice person to." She looked over at me. "Should I... take it? I don't wanna just leave it here..."

I wasn't sure what to say, but I decided to say something anyways. "I.. I think you should. It's probably important to him. I'm sure he wouldn't want it to be left here to rot."

Emma nodded. "Yeah, you're right." Emma stood up with the staff in her paw. "I think we've seen enough of this hut..."

We made our way out of the hut, walking over to the center of the village. In the middle was what seemed like the remains of a fountain. The top of it had a statue of a strange looking Pokémon, it looked like a dragon of sorts. I couldn't fully see it since a lot of it had been broken and chipped off, but from the bits I could see, it was a Drampa.

"This was the fountain we dedicated to our leader, we all called him The Elder." Emma said. "I remember him being the first one to die during the attack. It's been weeks... and yet I can remember it all so vividly." Emma put her paw on the fountain, I could've sworn I saw tears falling out from under her glasses. "The elder was the closest thing I had to a father. And watching him die... damn it..."

I went over and put a paw on her shoulder, she turned to me.

"I-I'm sorry... I wish you had gotten to know him better..." Emma said.

"...Yeah... I wish I had too..." I said.

Emma wiped her face, then we made our way over to another hut. It was a lot large than all the others. It had a bunch of holes in the walls and cracks like all the others did.

"This was the Elder's home... as well as my home..." Emma said, walking through the piles of ruble inside. I followed. The place looked rather homey despite the holes in the wall, it even had an upstairs. The stairs had been destroyed, but the ruble had made enough of a stair case for us to go up. The upstairs was just as destroyed, it had holes in the floor too. There was remains of a lot of different photos on the walls and on the floors. Most were of miscellaneous Pokémon. A few of them seemed to be of Emma, in the photos she only had bandages wrapped around one of her eyes. One of the photos I saw hadn't been framed, I picked it up, my eyes widened as I saw what it was of.

There I saw a photo of a Zangoose right next to who Emma said was The Elder.

"No.. that can't be..." I said, I looked over at Emma. "E-emma, were there anything other Zangoose in this village?" I asked.

"No, as far I know you were the only one."

I showed her the photo. "T-this can't be me right? Wasn't I new here?"

"It was a custom for every new member of the village to have a photo with the elder."

"This one isn't framed like all the others.. doesn't that mean I was his... last photo?" I don't know I felt so attached to something I didn't remember. Even if I wasn't there long, it felt so heart breaking knowing all this happened to a village who had let me join them.

"I..I guess it does." Emma said, she was about to say something else, but she stopped for a moment. "You should keep it... I'm sure it's what The Elder would've wanted."

I looked at the photo, suddenly seeing a tear drip onto it. I hadn't realized I had started crying until now. What was I crying for? I had no place to be sad, no reason! Why did I feel so hurt about it. Now I felt angry, angry at myself, I had no right to be so hurt about any of this!

Emma seemed to sense my frustration, she turned to me. "Rye.. are you alright?"

I felt so shaky, I could barely speak. "I... I shouldn't be sad..."

"What.. do you mean?... Even if it wasn't for long, this place was your home too."

I don't know what made me snap like this, but I did. "No! No it wasn't!" I shouted. "I don't know why I'm even here right now Emma! I don't remember anything about this place! Or why I'm even like THIS!" I gestured to myself. "None of this makes sense, I shouldn't be sad about a person I don't remember! I didn't know The Elder, or anyone else in this village! I don't even remember anything before I got here! All I remember is being in my room. going to bed, then waking up and running from some sort of massacre as this! I properly shouldn't even be alive! This place wasn't ever my home! I don't even deserve to be here! I don't know where to go from here, Emma!" I stomped my foot on the ground, causing the damaged flooring to crack and a hole to form, which caused me to fall back downstairs onto my back.

"R-rye!" I heard Emma yell from upstairs. She climbed down and came over to me. "Are you ok?"

The fall had hurt, but it didn't feel like anything too bad. "Ugh.. y-yea.. I'm alright.." I turned myself over, starting to get up, but seeing something shine underneath the ruble. "H-huh?" I reached in and pulled out a semi-long looking sword. It's handle was made of stone, and the blade was made of some steel-like material. Then I saw at the lower end of the handle, it had my named carefully carved into it. It felt, so natural to hold. As if I... held it before.

"W-what is it Rye?" Emma asked.

I stood up, with the sword in my paw. "I-I just... found a weird sword... it's.. not important." I turned back to her. "I'm.. sorry for yelling a moment ago."

Emma looked at me, I could she was staring me dead in the eye. "Rye.. I just... I have a lot of questions."

I sighed. "I know... It's a lot to explain."

"Come with me.. I know a place where it'll be better to explain." She made her way out of the hut, I followed, still holding the sword. I decided I'd worry about it later and just... keep it for now.

We were walking towards the other end of the village, where I started to hear a faint rushing sound. We got to what was the edge of a cliffside, which oversaw a large lake that connected to a river, which trailed towards the forest. In the distance I could see a large waterfall, flowing down a side of another cliff.

Emma sat along the edge. I sat next to her and sighed

Emma look to me. "It's alright if it's too hard to explain... I just.. I'm just curious now.." she said.

"I wasn't... planning on telling anyone I guess. Since I'm not sure how everyone would react... but..." I took a deep breath. "Emma I'm... not what I look like. Or at least... I haven't always been." I said.

Emma was confused. "How.. how so?"

"I haven't always been a Zangoose… I.. I used to be a human. In a different world... and... I don't know why I'm here." I said.

Emma looked down for a moment. "A human..."

"I know it's hard to believe... but... all I remember is just.. going to bed one night, then waking up in that whole massacre. Everything before that is a blank to me..."

"Honestly... it sort of makes sense."

"Wait.. you.. believe me?"

Emma nodded. "I can sense your aura to tell if you're lying." She said. "And you aren't. And even then... your behavior. The way you weren't aware of how to fight. It all makes sense. That must explain the golden aura you possess."

I took a breath of relief. "Gosh it... feels good to have someone else know that."

Emma looked at me and just gave a smile. "I'm glad to know you feel relieved."

I looked down, then looked back. "Hey... Emma?"

"Yes?"

"Thank yo-"

_CRASH!_

A large explosion sent me and Emma flying in a nearby tree. I looked up to see large blue-scaled Pokémon. It had an orange and yellow pattering along it's stomach, as well as spikes coming out of multiple parts of it's body. It's tail almost resembled that of a shark. It also had a mouth lined up and down with sharp teeth. It was a Garchomp.

I stood up, setting my word down. I wasn't sure about it yet. I looked at the Garchomp, unsheathing my claws. "HEY! What the hell's your problem?!"

The Garchomp didn't respond, instead lunging at me with a claw glowing with energy. I barely sidestepped and went for a Scratch on it's back. It didn't seem to do much to it, but the roughness of it's skin scratched my paws, causing them to bleed. Hitting this thing with direct attacks wouldn't be a good idea. But Emma had gotten up and lunged at it with a Blaze Kick. The kick made it stagger, but the scratches from the skin cut Emma's leg, making her wince in pain and fall back.

I had to find a way to hit it from a far, but how? I didn't know any ranged moves. I looked and saw the sword against the tree, knowing it might be my only chance.

The Garchomp turned back to me, swinging at me with it's claw again. This time I slide underneath the strike back towards the tree. Once I was there I quickly picked up the sword. The Garchomp opened it's mouth now, a large white beam of energy shooting out from it, Hyper Beam.

In an act of quickness, I covered myself with both arms, causing a clear shield to form and block the move from hitting me or Emma. I was glad that I had learnt to use Protect more effectively during training. After the Hyper Beam, the Garchomp looked exhausted. This was my chance.

I ran towards it with my sword in hand, jumping up and slashing it in the side. This made it stagger quite a bit and screech out in pain, as well as cause a large cut to form on it's side. The sword felt so swift to used, like I had used it before.

I ended up behind it, then I noticed something strange. On it's tail was some sort of brace. It was grey and had a red, glowing light on it. I realized I had to get that brace off, maybe then it would calm down.

I ran at it again, it predicated that this time though, it swung at me with it's claw, knocking me backwards into another tree. I looked and saw Emma managing to stand.

"Emma, distract it for me! I have a plan!" I shouted.

Emma nodded, her paw began to glow as she shot as wave of red air at the Garchomp, making it turn towards her. Perfect.

I ran at it again, latching myself onto it's tail. I could feel the rough scales began to cut at my arms and screamed out, but I didn't let go. It waved it's tail back and forth, trying to get me off of it. I held on tight, then raised my sword and stabbed it directly into metal brace. The Garchomp screamed out, I must've stabbed too deep and gotten into it's tail. I pulled my sword out, but before I could get off it's tail, it started to stagger backwards, right towards the cliff side.

"Rye, get off quick!"

I leaped off onto the ground, but the Garchomp still staggered back, soon falling off the cliff entirely. I quickly lunged forward and grabbed it's claw, trying to prevent it from falling. It was heavier than I was, so I began to slide down.

"Rye! Let go! You're gonna fall!" Emma shouted as she tried to limp her way over to us.

"I-I cant just... L-let it die!" A piece of the ground beneath began to break off, I slipped and we both fell downwards.

"RYE!" I faintly heard Emma shouted as I could feel vision slowly started to fade out.


	9. Chapter 9

"Rye, can you hear me?"

My eyes shot open, I looked around to once again see him, Cope, floating before me.

"C-cope! Where have you been?" I asked him, not remember what had just happened.

"Sorry for such a long wait, I had some... technical difficulties." He cleared his throat. "Anyways... I don't have much time today, so you need to listen good. Alright?"

I nodded multiple times.

"Alright... I can't say much since.. they're watching... but... We met before Rye, we've known each other longer than you'd think."

"We... have? How?" I asked.

"It's a lot to explain, but... I know why you're amnesiac. And why you can't remember your sister's name. Your- GAAH!" Cope suddenly clutched his head.

"C-cope?! What's wrong?" I asked, worried.

"D-damn it.. our connection is being intercepted... Rye, before I go. I need you to know that we will meet again. Not just in your head, but in reality." Cope said. "W-when we do, I can finally tell you everything."

"B-but what about you? Who's intercepting us?!" I asked, I had to know more. I had to.

"J-just listen..." His voice was fading out again. "You need to find where the Cult of Perfection resides. It's the only way you'll f-find out..." He said something more but it was all getting cut out.

"Wait, h-how do you know about the Cult of-"

Before I could speak, Cope fully faded away, along with everything else around me.

I heard... rushing? It was a muffled rushing, as if it was being blocked out. I then realized my mouth was closed, I opened my eyes slowly. Everything had a weird blue look to it, then I saw... a fish swimming by? I realize then I must've fallen into the river!

I looked up and quickly started swimming towards the surface, luckily I managed to hold my breath long enough to make it. I took in deep breaths once I reached the top, my skin felt like it was burning. I looked saw land, quickly swimming my way over to it and flopping onto the grass, still trying to catch my breath.

After finally catching my breath, I looked down at myself. My fur was completely soaked, making it had hang downwards. I stood up on all fours, shaking myself off, much like a dog or a cat would. I tried to walk, it stung when I did, but I managed to make my way over to the lake, viewing my reflection. Since I was so wet, the fur on my head drapped down and looked like hair. I almost looked like I was in a band, I got a light chuckle out of that.

I looked at my arms, moving a bit my fur let me see a bunch of cuts from that Garchomp. No wonder stung when I moved. I looked around the area, seeing something nearby me shine. I went over carefully, picking up the object. It was my sword! I hadn't realize I was holding it when I fell! Thank god it was still ok. The handle had been chipped a little, but other than that it was fine.

I stood up, my skin still felt like it was burning from the cuts, god what kind of skin did that Garchomp have?

I took a look at my surrounding, trees. Tall trees, short trees, dead trees, lots of trees... Too many for me to get a look at what direction to go in. I had to get back towards the cliff, but I had no idea which way lead me there. I looked at the river, figuring my best bet was to follow it, I made my way along the side of the stream. I was fairly sure it was the same day, as I could see the sun overhead, just a little past what I remembered before the fall. I also wondered where that Garchomp was, did it survive the fall too? I hoped so, it didn't seem like it was in control of itself. I wonder if it even would remember attacking us? I took another look at my cuts as I walked, god I hoped those wouldn't get infected anytime soon.

I had to have been walking for a few hours at least. After awhile, the sun wasn't visible anymore, it had sunken past the trees. All I could see ahead of me was more trees and more river, nothing else. If I kept going I'd be walking all through the night. I decided it was best to find a place to sort of camp out, at least for the night. I need some light, even though my eyesight was much better than when I was human, seeing in the dark wasn't exactly an easy thing. I felt the cold wind blow past me, even with my fur I couldn't help shivering a bit, must be because I was still wet.

I didn't know exactly how to start a fire, all I knew was that I need fuel for it. I started to pick up various sticks and twigs as I walked, soon getting to a large wide open area. It seemed quiet enough, so I went into the center, setting the handful of items I had onto the ground. I sat and sort of stared at them, not exactly sure what to do next. I unsheathed my claws, then held up my swords. Maybe I could something with them? I tried banging my sword against my claws, it made a tiny spark fall off. I was getting somewhere, so I kept banging them together. After a good while of banging, the sparks caught on the sticks and twigs and made a small flame. I was so excited that I yelled out in celebration, didn't think that'd be so exciting. I put various other sticks into the fire, making sure to move it to keep it lit. I sat by the fire, it's warmness was rather relaxing. I was almost able to relax completely, until my stomach growled quite loudly.

"Damn it... forgot about food."

I looked around the area, but didn't see anything in the way of food. No berry bushes, no apple trees, nothing. I sighed, I wasn't sure I wanted to leave my fire, but I didn't think going hungry was exactly a good idea either.

_HSSSSSSSSSSS_

I heard a loud hissing sound nearby. I felt my ears perk up as I quickly picked up my sword and unsheathed my claws.

"Hehe... I ssssssssee I've found a nice sssssssssssnack!"

I soon saw the source of the noise, in front of me was an incredibly long, snake-like creature. It was covered in what looked like various gold plated symbols as well a purple markings. It's tail curved to become red, sharp, and blade-like. To top it off, it had two long fangs hanging down from it's mouth. It was what I knew as a Zangoose's natural enemy, a Serviper. I stared it down, it stared right back. He looked hungry, and I was his clearly his choice of meal.

"Another pathetic Zangoose, useless for practical methods, but flavorful in tassssste!." It's tail glowed a purple color. "Sssssnack time boys!"

I looked to see another Serviper slither from behind a tree, then another one, and another! Three... four... six of them?! All of them had me surrounded, and they all looked just as hungry. They suddenly all sprayed some purple looking gas out of their mouths. The gas made my lungs burn, and I dropped my sword and fell onto one knee, coughing and gasping. The were spraying poison gas!

My head started to feel fuzzy, and my body was starting feel weaker. I was on both of my knees now, still coughing and hacking from the surrounding gas. I could see them slithering closer to me as I could feel myself starting to fade. I feel onto my stomach now, my eyes slowly starting to close, I couldn't even feel my body anymore, I tried to stand, begging my body to get itself up, but it wouldn't...

But then... I felt a strange feeling. It wasn't a second wind, no... It felt as if the pain of the poison was... giving me some sort of... energy... some sort of.. boost.

I don't think I could even feel myself controlling it, my body seemed to start to stand on it's own. At least, I think it did? My head still felt fuzzy, and I still felt like my lungs were burning. But I was standing, and I was pissed.

The Serviper all began to back up when they saw me stand, they seemed to be scared me. I didn't blame them, I felt scared of myself now. I felt my body pick up my sword, almost subconsciously. I looked at each one of them, running towards one and slashing at it quickly, making a huge gash on it's neck as it felt onto the ground screaming. I turned to look at the others, they were even more freaked out, but now they also seemed enraged. One of the lunged at me quickly, I sidestepped and slashed it in the side, making it fall over. Another wrapped itself around my neck, trying to choke me. I grabbed it's head, driving my claw into it's mouth trying to get it off. It eventually let go, coughing up blood and soon falling over. Another one jabbed me in the arm with it's tail, I winced and grabbed it, slamming it into the ground and stomping on it's face, then stabbing my sword into it's neck.

One of them hit me in the back with it's tail, knocking me into a tree. I got up as it shot some purple acid at me, I covered myself with my arms, making my shield appear and block the acid. I than ran for a slash, it dodged quickly, biting hard into my arm. I screamed out in pain as it's teeth sank into my skin, I quickly used my claw and stabbing it in both of it's eyes. It let go, hissing out in major pain as it tried to get me off, but I didn't pull out, I jabbed my claws in deeper and deeper. Somehow I was... enjoying this? The pain I was inflicting, it felt... good... why did it feel good?! The Serviper stopped squirming, soon falling onto the ground.

I then turned to the leader, he hissed at me like the others had, but then he looked at all the others, seeing them either screaming out in pain as they bled, or motionless all together. I stared him straight in his eyes, my head becoming more and more clouded by the second. Unlike the others, he seemed to be smarter, he slithered away quickly, soon out of sight.

I felt myself breathing heavily, my head felt clustered, and my whole chest felt like it was making my lungs cave in. I couldn't breathe right, I felt myself coughing again, then seeing blood being spat onto my paws. I stumbled backwards, hitting my head hard onto the tree and falling down. I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, my entire body wasn't responded to my attempts to move, soon, I felt myself start to fade, my eyes closing as I blacked out.

...

My eyes opened slowly. Ugh.. my head was killing me. I felt I had been hit with a hammer. My vision was a little fuzzy, but I felt like I was sitting in something. I looked around to see I was in a house of sorts. Suddenly my chest felt like it was burning again, I clenched it and screamed out in pain. I heard footsteps coming towards me.

"Zen! H-he's awake but he's in pain!" I heard a feminine voice say.

Still clenching my chest, I opened one eye to see a large, purple creature looking down at me worryingly. Most of her body was a pale-ish purple, while her belly was a much more saturated purple. Her tail had a similar pattern to this and was quite curved and rounded off at the top of it. She also had various green circles over her face and tail, not to mention her body seemed to be covered and dripping a bit with some sort of goo. I recognized her to be a Goodra.

Suddenly a Garchomp walked in, holding a pink berry in it's claw. It walked over to me.

"Here kid, eat this. It's gonna hurt to swallow, but it'll help the pain." He said, holding the berry close to my mouth.

I hesitated, but complied bit into the berry. I grunted as I swallowed it, it made my throat hurt, but after I did, the pain in my chest seemed to ease up a bit.

I looked at the Garchomp, catching my breath. "T-thank you..." I said.

"No worries kid, I owe it to ya." He said, which confused me a bit. I then looked at his side and saw a scar from a cut he must've gotten, then I realized that this was the same Garchomp from on the cliff.

"Wait... aren't you the same Garchomp I fought on the cliff?" I asked.

"Yep, name's Zen." He then turned towards the Goodra, who waved with a smile. "And this here my mate, Zinnia."

"I'm Rye, it's really nice to meet you both! And.. thank you for helping me out." I said.

Zen chuckled. "Aye, no problem kiddo. I owed you for getting that blasted brace off a me."

Zinnia hugged Zen. "Y-yeah! If it weren't for you he wouldn't have come back before! And now he's here, safe and sound!"

I smiled. "I'm glad I could help!"

Zen smiled back. "Say, I uh... Saw what happened with you and those Serviper. You alright from that?"

"I think I'm alright, my arm just stinging a bit since one of them bit me." I looked at my arm, the bite was very noticeable because of my fur, but one could probably see it if they looked close enough.

"I'll go get some bandages!" Zinnia said, leaving the room.

Zen came over to me. "I know I said it already but, really, thanks kid. Zinnia was so happy to see me back home, I wouldn't be here without ya."

"It's really no problem!" I smiled as Zinnia came back over, wrapping my arm in a couple layers of bandages.

"If there's anything else we can do to repay you, don't be shy to ask!" Zinnia said happily.

"I don't need anything else, don't worry! You guys helped me out too so I think that's repayment enough!" I said.

"Well you at least need to stay here for awhile, even if you're awake you're still far to injured to be going anywhere." She said, didn't look like she was taking no for an answer.

I wanted to protest, knowing I needed to get home. But I knew she was right, I wasn't in any condition to be leaving. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Zinnia seemed satisfied with that. "I'm glad! We don't have any extra beds but you're free to sleep on the chair if that's alright!"

"That's perfectly alright, thank you-" My stomach then suddenly growled loudly.

"Oh! You must be hungry! I'll go get some more berries!" Zinnia said, leaving the room again.

Zen chuckled again. "She's always been this caring, that's what I love about 'er" He said, then turned to me. "Say kid, once you're good again, whaddya say I help out of this forest?" He said.

"You know the way out? That'd be great!" I said, smiling.

"Alright, we'll head out tomorrow morning." He said as Zinnia came back with a basket full of berries, handing them to me.

"Have as many as you'd like, they're sitrus berries so they'll help the healing too!" She said.

I nodded as thanks, digging into the berries. They tasted really good, way better than you'd think just looking at them. I felt rather relieved to be able to eat something, I started to realize how lucky I was Zen had found me.

"Anyways, it's getting pretty late. Tomorrow we'll get you back home, alright kid?" Zen said.

"Yeah! Sounds good!" I nodded.

"Alright, night kid. And by the way, that blade of yours is on the table over there." Zen said as he and Zinnia went into a different room, I assumed their bedroom.

I laid back, closing my eyes. I wondered about a lot of things, one being if the others had already started looking for me. I hope they had, I was strangely feeling quite homesick despite only being gone for a day. Then I thought about the Serviper, I'm not sure how I managed to kill so many of them like that...

Wait... kill? No, no that can't be right. Me? Kill? I wouldn't do that... right?

I opened my eyes, unsheathing my claws and looking at them. They were stained with blood, almost all the way down. I then sat up, looking at the table and seeing my sword. I grunted as I reached for it, managing to pick it up and examine it, it was stained with just as much blood, maybe even more.

I had killed those Serviper, ended their lives. How... how could I have done that? Even if it was self-defense... I should've just ran away! Right? Why was I so driven to kill them? Why did I enjoy it?! Was I really that much of an animal? That can't be...

Something about that power... that boost I had... it can't be safe. I can't let that happen again.

(Bryan POV, next morning)

"Rye! Where are you little buddy?" I called out again, we had been searching for hours and yet still no sign of him.

'Ampharos…' Marigold said something to me and looked to me, he seemed to be quite worried about Rye. Me, him Emma, and Gaze had to wait until morning to look, since it was way too dark before.

"Don't worry Mari, I'm sure Rye's alright." I gave him a pat on the head to try and reassure him, he sighed.

We walked for what felt like at least a few more hours, soon we came up onto a decent sized hut like home. It was on the larger side, most likely having a few different rooms.

'Ri!' Emma seemed to perk up when we got close to it.

"What is it, Em? Do you sense Rye?"

Emma turned up to me and nodded multiple times. Then turning and making her way towards the home. We all followed and got to the front door. I gave it a knock, a few moments passed by, and then the door opened. A Goodra had answered the door, it looked down at me and tilted it's head.

'Dra?' She seemed to be asking why I was here.

"Uh, hey. You wouldn't happen to have a Zangoose in that house of yours, would you? His name is Rye, he feel off the cliff up there and we're trying to find him." I said, pointing to the cliff.

The Goodra blinked a few times, then she went into the house, leaving the door open. After a moment, a Garchomp came to the door. He didn't seem to be angry with me, so I just calming asked again if Rye was there. The Garchomp turned it's head into the house.

'Gar! Gar, gar chomp?' He said supposedly to someone.

After a moment, a figure made it's way towards the door. It was Rye!

"Rye!" I shouted, picking him up.

'Zan! Zan!' He said, yipping happily at me. The others all yipped happily, they all were just as happy to see him ok.

I looked at the Garchomp. "Thank you so much for finding him!"

'Gar!' The Garchomp smiled.

Rye looked over at the Garchomp and the Goodra, waving to them as they closed the door.

I pulled Rye into a hug. "I'm so glad to see ya little buddy! I thought something might of happened to you! Let's get you home alright?"

Rye nodded to that, we all made are way back through the forest towards home. I was glad to know Rye was ok. Though I noticed he had some sort of sword in his paw, where'd he get that?

And why did he smell like blood?


	10. Chapter 10

(Marigold POV)

The next few days went by fairly normally, at least. for the most part. I couldn't help but notice that Rye was acting quite a bit differently than usual. For one, during training he seemed to fight as hard, like he was too cautious of something. One time he nearly had me beat, but he stalled, letting me take advantage of it. Gaze, and Bryan seemed to notice it as well. Though Emma seemed not to notice it. Me and Gaze weren't sure if we should confront Rye about it. It could've been a personal thing for all we knew, we both decided we'd ask him about when it seemed like the proper time.

Today training went as normal, me and Emma had a close bout. I managed to come out on top due her lack of sight, she was improving one her speed of sensing, but she was still struggling to do it multiple times in quick succession. I told her we'd work on it some more, she seemed quite eager to get better. From the moment we first started training I could tell she enjoyed battling nearly as much as I did, possible more. She tried to convince Gaze to spar with her a lot of the time, though he still always denied. Today after our spar, she seemed to want to ask him again, but came over to me instead.

"Hey, Mari?" She asked, I was bit caught of guard since only Gaze and Bryan typically called me Mari, so I had felt a sudden nervousness.

I cleared my throat. "Y-yes?"

"I understand if it's a personal thing but... why doesn't Gaze ever seem to spar with us?"

"Oh! Well uh, honestly I'm not entirely sure myself. I've tried to convince him sometimes, but he seems against sparring with anyone he knows." I said, rubbing the back of my head.

Emma gave a nod. "I guess it's just his decision". She paused for a bit. "Hey Marigold, there's something I've been wanting to ask you."

"Huh? What is it?"

"It's about your aura... when I met you, I noticed it was green, but partially blue as well. I'm unsure what blue exactly means... but I wondered if you know why?"

"My... aura?" I thought about for a moment, I had this feeling, somehow I knew why my aura was that way. "Well... I guess that's also a bit of a long story. I wouldn't want to bore you with it." I said, not sure if I even wanted to say anything.

"It wouldn't bore me." Emma said, looking up directly at me. Somehow I could tell she was looking me in the eyes. "If it's personal, I understand."

I looked down for a moment, Gaze wouldn't like it if I told anyone about it, but I trusted Emma, enough to tell her something she's curious about. "I can tell you, but... let's, go somewhere else at least. I don't want Gaze to know I'm talking about this."

Emma nodded. "Alright."

We walked made our way back inside, then towards the front door. I saw Gaze and Rye chatting and told them we were going for a bit of a walk. Rye nodded at us, while Gaze just gave a smirk. I rolled my eyes at him, but yet I couldn't help a smile, saying goodbye and making our way outside.

We walked down the road, for a bit, but instead of turning towards the city we made our way to the right towards a small forest. I gave Emma a bit of help guiding her through the trees. We got a to a few rocks near a small pond, and we both sat down on the rocks.

I looked over to Emma. "I need you to promise me that... you won't tell Gaze I'm saying this. He doesn't enjoy when I talk about it."

"I won't tell him, I promise." Emma said.

I looked down. "Well... alright. Heh, never thought I'd be telling this story again..."

(Marigold POV, 10 years ago)

Back then I was still a Flaffy, but my attitude was still near identical. I was an active battler, finding any sort of opportunity to improve my skills. Me, Gaze and... our mother, lived in a small yet comfortable hut together. We had all built it ourselves. Well, I hadn't contributed much since it was built only a few years after I was born, but our mom had let me carry pieces of wood to still feel like I was helping, I was prouder than ever to help out, even back then.

Our mom was just like me, she was active, peppy, and had determination in her eyes. She was fairly popular around the forest we lived in. She never lost a single battle, and she always had a positive yet confident attitude whenever she battled. I admired that attitude ever since I was born, and I always strived to be just as strong as she was. Our mom was a Meowstic, a female variant of course. We weren't sure where our dad was, our mom didn't even know, at least, that's what she told us when she asked. We didn't worry about it much, we had each other, and to use it was all we needed. Gaze was still an Espurr at the time even though he was older than me. We trained together every day near the woods. We both strived to be as strong as mom was.

Our routine of days was pretty standard. Wake up, eat breakfast, train all day, eat dinner, then go to sleep. Of course, we had other activities we did on somedays. Sometimes mom would make us pie out of the berries we collected. It was always the best pie we ever had. We never thought we needed anything else when we were all together like this. I remember one day we all sat down together on the grass near our home.

"Hey, mom?" Gaze had asked. "We'll always have each other, right?"

"Yeah, will we?" I asked, tilting my head.

Mom looked at us both and smiled. "Of course we will, sweeties. I'll make sure of it." She smiled, bringing us both into a hug. Nothing felt better than knowing we were all together. I wasn't sure why we all had this attachment towards each other, but we felt as if we all needed each other. As if we couldn't live without each other. I was so sure we'd always be together after that moment, like everything would... be fine...

Despite her attitude, our mom was always worried of us being on our own. She'd always take us with her to go berry hunting, or literally anywhere else we'd happen to go. After awhile, I felt confident enough that I could go hunt berries on my own!

"Hey mom." I asked her one day. "Is it ok if I go collect berries myself this time? I'm sure I can do it alone now!"

Mom denied me immediately. "No sweetie, we go together, always!" She said.

"But mom, I can do it on my own now! I'm evolved, no ones gonna mess with me now!" I had such a confidence increase after I became a Flaffy. I felt like I was untouchable, which explained why I felt so confident in collecting berries on my own.

Mom looked at me, seeing the courage in my eyes, then gave a defeated sigh. "Alright, you can go by yourself, but be careful." She said, handing me a basket. "Me and your big brother will be training near the lake when you get back."

"Alright!" I said, smiling, then running out the hut.

I went along my way, picking up berries at every bush I could find. I felt so proud, like nothing bad could happen to me, or at all! I saw a few passing Pokémon glance at me, then turn away. None of them had any bones to pick with me, none of them challenged me or even dared to look me in the eye, at least well, that's what it felt like. I spent about 2 hours or so collecting berries, filling up the basket bit by bit until it was finally filled to the brim. I smiled at my work, even more proud of myself, I made my way back home. I couldn't wait to tell mom and Gaze that I-

_BOOM!_

A sudden burst of purple energy flew through the entire forest, knocking me and a lot of the nearby Pokémon over. A few trees nearly fell over as well.

"Oof! U-ugh.." I grunted as I sat up, It felt like some sort of major energy was nearby.

I looked to see a giant, beacon-like, purple beam shoot into the sky. It was coming from... the lake! I got up, not caring about the spilt berries, and ran quickly down towards the lake. I was scared, what if mom and Gaze were hurt?! I kept running and running, hearing more loud booming sounds, and then another large wave of energy knocked me backwards into the tree. My head felt fuzzy, I tried to stand again, now stumbling my way forwards. I felt water start to drip onto my fur, it had started to rain, but I kept stumbling. I felt as if whatever energy was near was holding me back, but I kept going, I ran again. Running and running, I finally made it to the lake. I felt the energy holding me back began to die down. And there I... saw... Gaze?

A male meowstic was there, kneel over on the grass, coughing out what looked like blood, and a lot of it. I ran over to him quickly.

"A-are, you ok?" I asked, not realizing who it was.

The meowstic looked up at me, blood dripping from it's mouth. "M-mari?" The voice, it was Gaze's voice! Just a bit deeper.

"B-big bro?" I asked, hugging him tightly. His body felt cold, empty almost. He grunted when I hugged him, but he returned it.

"W-where's mom?!" I asked, frantically.

"I-..." Gaze started. then we heard a coughing sound nearby. We both went over to the source of it, though I had help Gaze walk over while he still coughed some blood.

We got to the sound and... there she was... on the ground. Blood was dripping from her mouth, but the real issue was on her chest. There was quite a large hole right in the middle, blood gushing out of it at a rapid pace.

"MOM!" I ran over and bent next to her, Gaze did the same. "M-mom! W-what happened?! W-we need to get you help! W-we-" I felt tears coming to my eyes, I didn't bother holding them back, a few of them dripped on to her. Her eyes opened, and she looked up at me, smiling.

"Mari... don't worry about... me..." She coughed blood out, some of it got on my paws, I didn't care.

"M-mom... you're not ok! W-we... have to do some-" Gaze had started, but was cut off by mom tapping him on the nose.

"I need you boys... t-to promise me... that'll you'll keep each other safe..." She said, tears now running down her face.

"B-but mom..." I started, then she turned over and tapped my nose.

"But nothing..." She smiled at us both. "Both of you... stick together... no matter what..." She looked up at the sky. "Arceus' wind... please carry me away tonight..." Her eyes closed, and her entire body went limp and cold.

"No.. no no.. mom.." I just, laid on top of her, her cold, immobile corpse. I felt Gaze bend down, wrapping an arm around me, holding me tightly. We sat there for what felt like, hours, days even... Gaze whispered to me what had happened, saying that a Pokémon he didn't know of had attacked them both, it had struck mom from behind. He had somehow managed to beat it on his own, but... it was too late. I looked up him, tears pouring from my face now, tears were pouring from his too.

"T-this... isn't how I wanted to evolve..." I heard him say, it almost seemed more to himself than me. "I-I... I'm sorry... Mari I.. I couldn't save her.. I.."

I buried my face into his chest, my body was covered in blood from hugging mom, but I didn't care. I just... cried, for hours we sat there, just hugging.

We weren't together anymore.

(Marigold POV, present.)

I felt tears running down my face now. I hadn't bothered trying to hold them back, I just let them out.

"Had I been there I... I could've... done something..." I promised myself I wouldn't get like this, I promised myself I wouldn't cry about again, but I couldn't stop.

Then, I felt Emma put her paw on my back. I looked over to see her head towards the ground, silent. I saw a few tears drip from underneath her glasses.

"E-Emma, I didn't mean to-" She cut me off.

"N-no... it's.. alright." She said. "I'm... sorry... for your loss..."

I wiped the tears from my eyes. "It's ok.. it's just... had we all gone together... she wouldn't have..." I couldn't bare to finish the sentence.

"Hey... you had no idea. It's not your fault." Emma said, looking up at me.

"I... I guess you're right..." I looked down at her, she seemed to give a light smile, and I returned it.

I looked up, seeing the sun was setting. "It's getting late... we should probably get going."

Emma nodded. "Alright."

(Gaze POV)

"You're... a what?"

"A human. Well... at least I used to be." Rye said, looking me dead in the eye. I could tell he was serious, the look on his face, it said enough.

"Hmm..." I looked at him, right back in the eye, looking for the hint of lie in his words, but I couldn't find it.

"I'm not lying to you, Gaze. I used to be a human, and I don't know why this happened to me." He said.

I stared at him a bit longer, then I just chuckled. "Guess I got no choice. Alright kid, I believe ya." I said

"You... do?" He asked, he almost seemed not to believe it.

"Yep." I darted my eyes left. "In all honestly it sorta makes sense. I mean, you didn't even know how to use moves. That's an instinctive thing. And then there's the fact you've tasted sushi before, only human places have sushi, and from what I can tell you haven't encounter any other humans besides Bryan. It doesn't answer all my questions, but it answers as many as I'm assuming you know." I gave him a smile. "And this whole Cult of Perfection thing you're talkin' about. I gotta say it I have a feeling they have somethin' to do with it."

"Why do you think that?"

"Eh, just a hunch I suppose. It lines up a bit too well dontcha think? If the last thing you can remember is being in that village, which was attacked by them, I'd say they could be involved in some way." I looked to the left again. "Again, it's just a hunch. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's closest connection you got."

Rye nodded at that. "Yeah.. I wanna tell Emma about them but.. I feel like I need to know more about these guys. I have no clue where they are, from what I researched nobody does."

"Hmph… we gotta fine some sort of lead... something to get us closer. Maybe try and do some more research tonight kid, see what you can find." I said, standing up from the couch.

Rye gave another nod. "Y-yeah! I'll see what I can fine!"

Just then, the front door opened again. Marigold and Emma entered the house. Rye waved hello and I gave a quick head nod. Emma went over and sat on the couch with Rye, meanwhile Marigold came over to me.

"Wanna.. go for a walk?" He asked.

"Didn't ya just come back from one?"

"Well yea.. I just thought we could... chat."

Whenever Marigold told me he wanted to "chat", that meant he had something on his mind.

I looked up at him. "Sure."

(Apologies for the short, and most likely sloppy, chapter. School's been a pain, so things have been really busy recently. I wanted to get something out to you guys this month. Imma try to get back on track. I wanna make a schedule for the story, but I doubt I could keep up with it. I wanna at least try for a chapter every 2 weeks or so, but again, no guarantees. Hope you guys understand! I have other ideas in the works, but I'll try to stick with this one for the time being. (Though, maybe keep your eyes out for a little side project around Christmas time. Again, no promises, only possibilities.)


	11. Update

Hey everyone, you're most likely wondering where no choice has been for the past few months.

I've had all the free time in the world.. I've just.. Not had the inspiration to continue it.

Don't freak out, No choice will continue, but when is the question I'm not sure of.

But in the mean time... I've been planning out another story i wanna work on. I've been planning it for a while honestly.

Again, No choice will return, but while it's on hiatus a new story will (hopefully) be taking it's place.

Love y'all, hope to see you all soon.


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